All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood

Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity

Andrew Solomon · 721 pages

Solomon’s startling proposition in *Far from the Tree* is that being exceptional is at the core of the human condition—that difference is what unites us. He writes about families coping with deafness, dwarfism, Down's syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, or multiple severe disabilities; with children who are prodigies, who are conceived in rape, who become criminals, and who are transgender. While eac

How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character

Paul Tough · 256 pages

Why do some children succeed while others fail? The story we usually tell about childhood and success is the one about intelligence: success comes to those who score highest on tests, from preschool admissions to SATs. But in this book the author argues that the qualities that matter most have more to do with character: skills like perseverance, curiosity, conscientiousness, optimism, and self-con

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner · 320 pages

*A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything* Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime? These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But

Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood

William S. Pollack · 476 pages

Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men

Leonard Sax · 309 pages

Queen Bees & Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence

Rosalind Wiseman · 392 pages

"My daughter used to be so wonderful. Now I can barely stand her and she won't tell me anything. How can I find out what's going on?""There's a clique in my daughter's grade that's making her life miserable. She doesn't want to go to school anymore. Her own supposed friends are turning on her, and she's too afraid to do anything. What can I do?"Welcome to the wonderful world of your daughter's ado

Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers

Gordon Neufeld, Gabor Mate · 320 pages

Canadian doctors Neufeld and Maté woke up one day to find that their children had become secretive and unreachable. Pining for time with friends, they recoiled or grew hostile around adults. Why? The problem, Neufeld and co-writer Maté suggest, lies in a long-established, though questionable, belief that the earliest possible mastery of the rules of social acceptance leads to success. In a society

NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children

Po Bronson, Ashley Merryman · 352 pages

In a world of modern, involved, caring parents, why are so many kids aggressive and cruel?  Where is intelligence hidden in the brain, and why does that matter?  Why do cross-racial friendships decrease in schools that are more integrated?  If 98% of kids think lying is morally wrong, then why do 98% of kids lie?  What's the single most important thing that helps infants learn language?  NurtureSh

Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason

Alfie Kohn · 272 pages

The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do

Judith Rich Harris · 462 pages

Overview: This groundbreaking book, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times notable pick, rattled the psychological establishment when it was first published in 1998 by claiming that parents have little impact on their children's development. In this tenth anniversary edition of The Nurture Assumption, Judith Harris has updated material throughout and provided a fresh introduction. Combining

Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting

Pamela Druckerman · 284 pages

"The secret behind France's astonishingly well-behaved children. When American journalist Pamela Druckerman has a baby in Paris, she doesn't aspire to become a "French parent." French parenting isn't a known thing, like French fashion or French cheese. Even French parents themselves insist they aren't doing anything special. Yet, the French children Druckerman knows sleep through the night at two

Childhood and Society

Erik H. Erikson · 438 pages

The original and vastly influential ideas of Erik H. Erikson underlie much of our understanding of human development. His insights into the interdependence of the individual's growth and historical change, his now-famous concepts of identity, growth, and the life cycle, have changed the way we perceive ourselves and society. Widely read and cited, his works have won numerous awards including the P

Raising An Emotionally Intelligent Child

John M. Gottman, Joan DeClaire · 239 pages

Intelligence That Comes from the Heart Every parent knows the importance of equipping children with the intellectual skills they need to succeed in school and life. But children also need to master their emotions. Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child is a guide to teaching children to understand and regulate their emotional world. And as acclaimed psychologist and researcher John Gottman show

Outliers: The Story of Success

Malcolm Gladwell · 320 pages

In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their

The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children

Ross W. Greene · 304 pages

Nurture by Nature: How to Raise Happy, Healthy, Responsible Children Through the Insights of Personality Type

Paul D. Tieger, Barbara Barron-Tieger · 287 pages

A groundbreaking guide that shows you how to harness the power of Personality Type to develop the parenting strategies that work with your child. Every parent knows that children, even babies, have distinct personalities. Now, with this one-of-a-kind parenting guide, Paul Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger show you how to use Personality Type analysis, a powerful and well-respected psychological too

The Emotional Life of the Toddler

Alicia F. Lieberman · 288 pages

The Magic Years: Understanding & Handling the Problems of Early Childhood

Selma H. Fraiberg, T. Berry Brazelton · 300 pages

Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys

Dan Kindlon, Michael G. Thompson, Teresa Barker · 288 pages

The Hurried Child: Growing Up Too Fast Too Soon

David Elkind · 230 pages

"Dr. Elkind has shown that in blurring the boundaries of what is age appropriate, by expecting - or imposing - too much too soon, we force our kids to grow up too fast, to mimic adult sophistication while secretly yearning for innocence.". "In the two decades since this book first appeared, we have compounded the problem, inadvertently stepping up the assault on childhood in the media, in schools

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

Brene Brown

The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind, Survive Everyday Parenting Struggles, and Help Your Family Thrive

Daniel J. Siegel, Tina Payne Bryson · 176 pages

Taking Charge of ADHD: The Complete, Authoritative Guide for Parents

Russell A. Barkley · 321 pages

Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters from Marketers' Schemes

Sharon Lamb, Lyn Mikel Brown · 336 pages