Book Spreads Word on Helping Kids : Lifestyles: Two women have written a guide for people who want to get involved in caring for disadvantaged children in the United States.

There are books about how to save the dolphins and how to save the Earth, but the lack of books about helping disadvantaged children in America prompted a former New York City welfare hotel official to write one of her own.

“It’s easier to face the suffering of children in remote countries (than to) realize that American children so desperately need help,” said Amy Hatkoff. “Right here, we have kids dying of poverty and hunger.”

According to the Child Welfare League of America, 100,000 children go to sleep every night in America without homes. More than 12 million children have no health insurance, the Children’s Defense Fund says. And the National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse says that in 1990, 1,211 children in the United States died as a result of abuse or neglect.

So Hatkoff, who worked as director of volunteers at the Prince George welfare hotel, and Karen Kelly Klopp, a volunteer for a women’s group at a New York City shelter, got together and wrote a comprehensive resource book.

“How to Save the Children” is designed for people who want to get involved but aren’t sure how they can help. Each chapter offers suggestions that address a particular problem facing children. Next to those suggestions are examples of programs and organizations that deal with the problem, including telephone numbers.

The book recommends doing simple things--driving a mother and child to the doctor’s office or donating children’s clothes and toys--and more time-consuming activities, such as being a community leader, mentor or child advocate.

Hatkoff and Klopp say their book was inspired by their work with homeless children and adults--and the willingness they saw among people from all walks of life to get involved.

In recalling her first days as director of volunteers, Hatkoff said the Prince George Hotel was like a war zone. “There were drugs, violence and poverty everywhere you turned,” she said.

“But watching the volunteers work day after day with the kids was a profound and rewarding experience. Bankers and accountants were getting down on their hands and knees and playing with the kids. They saw you could really reach these youngsters,” she said.

Klopp, a producer, said she got involved while she was on leave from her job in film. She was looking for a volunteer job, Klopp said, but it took a while to get started.

“Like many people, I felt shy,” she said. “That’s who our book is for, people like me that wanted to help but didn’t have a clue where to go.”

Klopp now works at the Woman’s Group, a weekly support group for women living in New York City shelters. The project was started by Hatkoff at the Prince George Hotel.

She says working at the Woman’s Group is the highlight of her week. “Once you get over the barriers, you realize we’re all moms with kids,” Klopp said.

For those interested in other volunteer opportunities, a resource book, “Stand Up and Be Counted” by Judy Knipe, offers a wide range of volunteer possibilities that include the arts, disaster relief, sports and education.

Knipe writes, “volunteers really are needed now more than ever to meet overwhelming needs, especially in social, health and educational services.” The book is similar in format to “How to Save the Children.”