Random House New Releases - Parenting

20 Things Adoptive Parents Need to Succeed by Sherrie Eldridge

2009-10-27T00:30:00-05:00

20 Things Adoptive Parents Need to Succeed
Written by Sherrie Eldridge

Trade Paperback, 320 pages | Delta | Family & Relationships - Adoption | $16.00 | 978-0-385-34162-2 (0-385-34162-8)

Do I have what it takes to be a successful adoptive parent?
Does my child consider me a successful parent?
Will I ever hear my rebellious teen say, “I love you”?
What tools do I need to succeed?

In her groundbreaking first book, Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew, Sherrie Eldridge gave voice to the very real concerns of adopted children, whose unique perspectives offered unprecedented insight. In this all-new companion volume, Eldridge goes beyond those insights and shifts her focus to parents, offering them much-needed encouragement and hope.

Speaking from her own experience as an adoptee and an expert in the field of adoption, Eldridge shares proven strategies and the moving narratives of nearly one hundred adoptive families, helping parents gain a deeper understanding of what is normal, both for their children and themselves. By first strengthening yourself as a parent, you’ll be able to truly listen to your child, and to connect with him on every level, by opening the channels of communication and keeping them open forever. Then you and your child can grow closer through the practical exercises at the end of every chapter.

Discover how to
• be confident that your role in your child’s life is vital and irreplaceable
• pass on the legacy of healthy self-care by assessing and regulating your stress
• communicate unconditional love to your child
• talk candidly with your child about her adoption and her birth family
• teach your family how to respond positively to insensitive remarks about adoption
• connect with other adoptive families–and build a support network
• plus learn to become a “warrior” parent…settle the “real parent” question…cope with emotional triggers–what to do when you “lose it” . . . celebrate the miracle of your family…and much more

Child Sense by Susan Goodwyn, Ph.D.

2009-10-27T00:30:00-05:00

Child Sense From Birth to Age 5, How to Use the 5 Senses to Make Sleeping, Eating, Dressing, and Other Everyday Activities Easier While Strengthening Your Bond With Child
Written by Priscilla J. Dunstan
Foreword by Linda Acredolo, Ph.D. and Susan Goodwyn, Ph.D.

Hardcover, 336 pages | Bantam | Family & Relationships - Parenting; Family & Relationships - Child Development; Education - Teaching Methods | $26.00 | 978-0-553-80667-0 (0-553-80667-X)

Your infant is crying and you don’t know why. Your toddler refuses every kind of food–except one. Your preschooler wages war with you each morning over what to wear. Every day, parents struggle unsuccessfully to understand why their children act the way they do. Now child development expert Priscilla J. Dunstan breaks down those barriers to understanding with this revolutionary and accessible guide that teaches a new way of parenting–custom-designed for each child’s personality.

The product of eight years of groundbreaking research, this book will help you understand how your child interacts with the world. Dunstan begins from the premise that every child has his or her own dominant sensory “interface” with the world. Some children are highly sensitive to touch, others to sound or to sight. And some are unusually sensitive to all outside stimuli, especially taste and smell. This sensitivity affects how your child behaves, learns, and communicates from the very first days of life. Uncovering your child’s dominant sense–and knowing what your own dominant sense is–is essential for finding common ground and creating bonds of trust and intimacy with your child.

Use this book to

• take comprehensive “sense tests” to determine your child’s dominant sense–and your own
• understand how sensory overload plays out from infancy to age five, at home and in school
• learn why your child’s sensory personality shapes the way he or she instinctively reacts to new experiences and people
• appreciate the richness of your child’s emotional life, and help your child thrive in the outside world

For every parent who has ever looked at a child’s behavior and thought What is he trying to tell me?, Child Sense shows you how to find the answer.

Escaping the Endless Adolescence by Claudia Worrell Allen

2009-10-20T00:30:00-05:00

Escaping the Endless Adolescence How We Can Help Our Teenagers Grow Up Before They Grow Old
Written by Joseph Allen and Claudia Worrell Allen

Hardcover, 272 pages | Ballantine Books | Family & Relationships - Parenting | $25.00 | 978-0-345-50789-1 (0-345-50789-4)

Do you sometimes wonder how your teen is ever going to survive on his or her own as an adult? Does your high school junior seem oblivious to the challenges that lie ahead? Does your academically successful nineteen-year-old still expect you to “just take care of” even the most basic life tasks?

Welcome to the stunted world of the Endless Adolescence. Recent studies show that today’s teenagers are more anxious and stressed and less independent and motivated to grow up than ever before. Twenty-five is rapidly becoming the new fifteen for a generation suffering from a debilitating “failure to launch.” Now two preeminent clinical psychologists tell us why and chart a groundbreaking escape route for teens and parents.

Drawing on their extensive research and practice, Joseph Allen and Claudia Worrell Allen show that most teen problems are not hardwired into teens’ brains and hormones but grow instead out of a “Nurture Paradox” in which our efforts to support our teens by shielding them from the growth-spurring rigors and rewards of the adult world have backfired badly. With compelling examples and practical and profound suggestions, the authors outline a novel approach for producing dramatic leaps forward in teen maturity, including

• Turn Consumers into Contributors Help teens experience adult maturity–its bumps and its joys–through the right kind of employment or volunteer activity.
• Feed Them with Feedback Let teens see and hear how the larger world perceives them. Shielding them from criticism–constructive or otherwise–will only leave them unequipped to deal with it when they get to the “real world.”
• Provide Adult Connections Even though they’ll deny it, teens desperately need to interact with adults (including parents) on a more mature level–and such interaction will help them blossom!
• Stretch the Teen Envelope Do fewer things for teens that they can do for themselves, and give them tasks just beyond their current level of competence and comfort.

Today’s teens are starved for the lost fundamentals they need to really grow: adult connections and the adult rewards of autonomy, competence, and mastery. Restoring these will help them unlearn their adolescent helplessness and grow into adults who can make you–and themselves–proud.

Caring for Your Baby and Young Child, 5th Edition by American Academy Of Pediatrics

2009-10-13T00:30:00-05:00

Caring for Your Baby and Young Child, 5th Edition Birth to Age 5
Written by American Academy Of Pediatrics

Trade Paperback, 928 pages | Bantam | Family & Relationships - Child Care | $22.00 | 978-0-553-38630-1 (0-553-38630-1)

THE MOST UP-TO-DATE, EXPERT ADVICE
FOR MOTHERS, FATHERS, AND CARE PROVIDERS FROM
THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS

From the most respected organization on child health comes this essential resource for all parents who want to provide the very best care for their children. Here is the one guide pediatricians routinely recommend and parents can safely trust, covering everything from preparing for childbirth to toilet training to nurturing your child’s self-esteem. Whether it’s resolving common childhood health problems or detailed instructions for coping with emergency medical situations, Caring for Your Baby and Young Child has everything you need.

•Basic care from infancy through age five
• Guidelines and milestones for physical, emotional, social, and cognitive growth
•A complete health encyclopedia covering injuries, illnesses, congenital diseases, and other disabilities
•Guidelines for prenatal and newborn care with sections on maternal nutrition, exercise, and screening tests during pregnancy
•An in-depth guide to breastfeeding, including its benefits, techniques, and challenges
•A complete guide for immunizations and updated information on vaccine safety
•A guide for choosing child care programs and car safety seats
•Ways to reduce your child’s exposure to environmental hazards, such as secondhand smoke
• Sections on grandparents, building resilience, media, and multiples
• New chapters on sleep and on allergies—including food allergies
•New content on prebiotics and probiotics, organic foods, and other healthy lifestyle topics
•And much more

Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding by Ina May Gaskin

2009-09-29T00:30:00-05:00

Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding
Written by Ina May Gaskin

Trade Paperback, 352 pages | Bantam | Health & Fitness - Pregnancy & Childbirth; Health & Fitness - Alternative Therapies | $18.00 | 978-0-553-38429-1 (0-553-38429-5)

Everything you need to know to make breastfeeding a joyful, natural, and richly fulfilling experience for both you and your baby

Drawing on her decades of experience in caring for pregnant women, mothers, and babies, Ina May Gaskin explores the health and psychological benefits of breastfeeding and gives you invaluable practical advice that will help you nurse your baby in the most fulfilling way possible. Inside you’ll find answers to virtually every question you have on breastfeeding, including topics such as
•the benefits of breastfeeding
•nursing challenges
•pumps and other nursing products
•sleeping arrangements
•nursing and work
•medications
•nursing multiples
•weaning
•sick babies
•nipplephobia, and much more

Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding is filled with helpful advice, medical facts, and real-life stories that will help you understand how and why breastfeeding works and how you can use it to more deeply connect with your baby and your own body. Whether you’re planning to nurse for the first time or are looking for the latest, most up-to-date expert advice available, you couldn’t hope to find a better guide than Ina May.

Saving Sammy by Beth Alison Maloney

2009-09-22T00:30:00-05:00

Saving Sammy Curing the Boy Who Caught OCD
Written by Beth Alison Maloney

Hardcover, 272 pages | Crown | Biography & Autobiography - Personal Memoirs | $23.99 | 978-0-307-46183-4 (0-307-46183-1)

The summer before entering sixth grade, Sammy, a bright and charming boy who lived on the coast of Maine, suddenly began to exhibit disturbing behavior. He walked and ate with his eyes shut, refused to bathe, burst into fits of rage, slithered against walls, and used his limbs instead of his hands to touch light switches, doorknobs, and faucets.

Sammy’s mother, Beth, already coping with the overwhelming responsibility of raising three sons alone, watched helplessly as her middle child descended into madness. Sammy was soon diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and later with Tourette syndrome. Unwilling to accept the doctors’ prognoses for lifelong mental illness and repeated hospitalizations, Beth fought to uncover what was causing this decline. Racing against time as Sammy slipped further from reality, Beth’s quest took her to the center of the medical community’s raging debate about whether mental illness can be caused by infection. With the battle lines firmly drawn, Beth searched until she found two cutting-edge doctors who answered that question with a definitive yes. Together, they cured Sammy. Five years later, he remains symptom free.

Driven by her desire to help others, Beth Maloney has infused every page of this triumphant journey with heart and passion. An important story, Saving Sammy is part manifesto, part medical mystery, but is at its heart the empowering and inspiring story of a mother’s determination to save her son, take on the medical establishment–and win.

Simplicity Parenting by Lisa M. Ross

2009-08-25T00:30:00-05:00

Simplicity Parenting Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids
Written by Kim John Payne and Lisa M. Ross

Hardcover, 256 pages | Ballantine Books | Family & Relationships - Parenting | $25.00 | 978-0-345-50797-6 (0-345-50797-5)

Today’s busier, faster, supersized society is waging an undeclared war . . . on childhood. As the pace of life accelerates to hyperspeed–with too much stuff, too many choices, and too little time–children feel the pressure. They can become anxious, have trouble with friends and school, or even be diagnosed with behavioral problems. Now, in defense of the extraordinary power of less, internationally renowned family consultant Kim John Payne helps parents reclaim for their children the space and freedom that all kids need, allowing their children’s attention to focus and their individuality to flourish.

Based on Payne’s twenty year’s experience successfully counseling busy families, Simplicity Parenting teaches parents how to worry and hover less–and how to enjoy more. For those who want to slow their children’s lives down but don’t know where to start, Payne offers both inspiration and a blueprint for change.

• Streamline your home environment. The average child has more than 150 toys. Here are tips for reducing the amount of toys, books, and clutter–as well as the lights, sounds, and general sensory overload that crowd the space young imaginations need in order to grow.

• Establish rhythms and rituals. Predictability (routines) and transparency (knowing the day’s plan) are soothing pressure valves for children. Here are ways to ease daily tensions, create battle-free mealtimes and bedtimes, and tell if your child is overwhelmed.

• Schedule a break in the schedule. Too many activities may limit children’s ability to motivate and direct themselves. Learn how to establish intervals of calm in your child’s daily torrent of constant doing–and familiarize yourself with the pros and cons of organized sports and other “enrichment” activities.

• Scale back on media and parental involvement. Back out of hyperparenting by managing your children’s “screen time” to limit the endless and sometimes scary deluge of information and stimulation.

Parental hovering is really about anxiety; by doing less and trusting more, parents can create a sanctuary that nurtures children’s identity, well-being, and resiliency as they grow–slowly–into themselves. A manifesto for protecting the grace of childhood, Simplicity Parenting is an eloquent guide to bringing new rhythms to bear on the lifelong art of parenting.

You Can Adopt by Isolde Motley

2009-08-11T00:30:00-05:00

You Can Adopt An Adoptive Families Guide
Written by Susan Caughman and Isolde Motley

Trade Paperback, 320 pages | Ballantine Books | Family & Relationships - Adoption | $16.00 | 978-0-345-50401-2 (0-345-50401-1)

From Adoptive Families magazine, the country’s leading resource on adoption, this warm, authoritative book is full of practical, realistic advice from leading attorneys, doctors, social workers, and psychologists, as well as honest, intimate stories from real parents and children. You Can Adopt answers every question–even the ones you’re afraid to ask:

• When should I shift from fertility treatment to adoption?
• How do I talk to my spouse about adoption?
• Can we find a healthy baby?
• Do I need an attorney? An adoption agency?
• Can the birth mother take the baby back?
• How much will this really cost? How long will it take?
• Aren’t all adopted children unhappy?
• Can I love a child who “isn’t mine”?
• How can I ease the rest of my family into this decision?

Complete with checklists and worksheets, You Can Adopt will help make your dreams of family come true.

99 Ways to Entertain Your Family for Free! by Mack Thomas

2009-07-21T00:30:00-05:00

99 Ways to Entertain Your Family for Free!
Written by Mack Thomas

Trade Paperback, 112 pages | WaterBrook Press | Religion - Christian Life; Family & Relationships - Activities; Family & Relationships - Parenting | $5.99 | 978-0-307-45836-0 (0-307-45836-9)

99 Ways to Entertain Your Family for Free offers a variety of opportunities to both entertain and educate family members of all ages. The major categories of free activities include “Around Town”, “Just Imagine”, “With Nature”, “Rituals and Routines”, and “Holidays”.

Mack Thomas, father of five adult children, has written a score of children’s books, including bestsellers The First Step Bible and What Would Jesus Do? A winner of three ECPA Gold Medallions book awards, he lives in Oregon.

Blue Like Play Dough by Tricia Goyer

2009-07-21T00:30:00-05:00

Blue Like Play Dough The Shape of Motherhood in the Grip of God
Written by Tricia Goyer

Trade Paperback, 208 pages | Multnomah Books | Religion - Christian Life - Women's Issues | $13.99 | 978-1-60142-152-4 (1-60142-152-4)

In the everyday stretch and squeeze of motherhood, Tricia Goyer often feels smooshed by the demands of life. In Blue Like Play Dough, she shares her unlikely journey from rebellious, pregnant teen to busy wife and mom with big dreams of her own. As her story unfolds, Tricia realizes that God has more in store for her than she has ever imagined possible.

Sure, life is messy and beset by doubts. But God keeps showing up in the most unlikely places–in a bowl of carrot soup, the umpteenth reading of Goodnight Moon, a woe-is me teen drama, or play dough in the hands of a child.

In Tricia’s transparent account, you’ll find understanding, laughter, and strength for your own story. And in the daily push and pull, you’ll learn to recognizes the loving hands of God at work in your life… and know He has something beautiful in mind.

So Sexy So Soon by Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D.

2009-07-21T00:30:00-05:00

So Sexy So Soon The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids
Written by Diane E. Levin, Ph.D. and Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D.

Trade Paperback, 240 pages | Ballantine Books | Family & Relationships - Parenting | $15.00 | 978-0-345-50507-1 (0-345-50507-7)

Risqué Halloween costumes for young girls. T-shirts that boast “Chick Magnet” for toddler boys. Sexy content on almost every television channel, as well as in movies and video games. Popular culture and technology inundate our boys and girls with an onslaught of graphic sexual messages at earlier ages than ever before. Without the emotional sophistication to understand what they are doing and seeing, kids are getting into increasing trouble emotionally and socially. Parents are left shaking their heads, wondering: How did this happen? What can we do?

Diane E. Levin, Ph.D., and Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D., internationally recognized experts in, respectively, early childhood development and the impact of the media on children and teens, offer parents essential, age-appropriate strategies to counter the assault. Filled with savvy suggestions, helpful sample dialogues, and poignant stories from families dealing with these issues, So Sexy So Soon provides parents with the information, skills, and confidence they need to discuss sensitive topics openly and effectively–so their kids can just be kids.

Positive Parenting for Bipolar Kids by Judy Fort Brenneman

2009-06-23T00:30:00-05:00

Positive Parenting for Bipolar Kids How to Identify, Treat, Manage, and Rise to the Challenge
Written by Mary Ann McDonnell and Janet Wozniak
Contribution by Judy Fort Brenneman

Trade Paperback, 384 pages | Bantam | Family & Relationships - Child Care; Psychology & Psychiatry - Child Psychiatry; Family & Relationships - Health | $16.00 | 978-0-553-38462-8 (0-553-38462-7)

The Definitive Resource on How to Identify, Treat, and Thrive with a Bipolar Child

More than three million American children suffer from some form of bipolar disorder, a life-impairing illness that can cause wild mood swings and even episodes of rage. But as a parent, can you tell the difference between a temperamental, moody child and one facing serious mental illness? Where do you turn if your child’s tantrums and meltdowns are wreaking havoc? For families as well as professionals, here is the only book on early-onset bipolar disorder written by pediatric specialists who combine clinical care and research. Drawing from their professional experience and sharing stories of families in their practices, child psychiatrist Janet Wozniak and psychiatric nurse Mary Ann McDonnell guide you in how to:

•Navigate the “diagnosis tangle” to ensure accurate identification of the disorder
•Communicate effectively with doctors, teachers, and counselors
•Find allies and choose a treatment team
•Help your family cope

From medication to coping strategies, this accessible book offers the most up-to-date information as well as inspiration, encouragement, and invaluable wisdom for all involved.

This Little Mommy Stayed Home by Samantha Wilde

2009-06-23T00:30:00-05:00

This Little Mommy Stayed Home A Novel
Written by Samantha Wilde

Trade Paperback, 400 pages | Bantam | Fiction | $15.00 | 978-0-385-34266-7 (0-385-34266-7)

The Mother of all Motherhood novels.

In this riotously funny, ruefully honest, and irresistibly warmhearted debut, Samantha Wilde writes about one new mother who discovers the wonders and terrors of motherhood—one hilarious crisis at a time. For new moms, potential moms-to-be, and anyone who just wants to (wisely) live the experience vicariously…

New mom Joy McGuire hasn’t changed her sweatpants since her baby was born. Of course she’s crazy about her newborn son; it’s her distracted, work-obsessed husband and his impossible mother she can’t stand. Joy turns to her own mom for support, but she’s too busy planning her fourth wedding to a suspicious self-help guru. Sure, Joy’s a woman on the brink, but it’s nothing a little sleep, sanity, and chocolate can’t fix.

Until her old college boyfriend shows up at their ten-year reunion. The one she was still in love with when she married her husband. It must be the lack of sleep, because Joy is starting to think she might have ended up with the wrong man. Not to mention she’s obsessed with her sexy yoga instructor, who might just be interested in her. Joy used to be single, skinny, and able to speak in complete sentences, but who is she now? As she’s trying to figure that out, her husband goes missing….

Frank, bawdy, and full of keenly self-aware observations, this novel tells the story of one new mother, three men, one marriage, and the baby love that keeps us up at night

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins by Marc Weissbluth, M.D.

2009-06-09T00:30:00-05:00

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins A Step-by-Step Program for Sleep-Training Your Multiples
Written by Marc Weissbluth, M.D.

Trade Paperback, 192 pages | Ballantine Books | Family & Relationships - Child Care | $14.00 | 978-0-345-49779-6 (0-345-49779-1)

From one of the nation’s most trusted experts on children’s bedtime and nap time comes a new guide for sleep-training twins so that everybody (including Mom and Dad) will be rested and happy!

As parents of twins and multiples know, double the fun can be double the sleep deprivation. Now, in Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins, beloved pediatrician and renowned sleep authority Dr. Marc Weissbluth combines specialized advice for parents of twins with his tried-and-true sleep-training methods to show exhausted moms and dads how to get their babies to sleep on their own, stay asleep, and sleep regularly. This essential step-by-step guide to establishing good sleep patterns reveals how to build healthy habits in twins’ natural slumber cycles, including

• how healthy sleep differs from “junk” sleep, plus a helpful tutorial on the techniques of sleep training for new parents
• the five ingredients of healthy sleep, and why daytime sleep is different from nighttime sleep but equally important to good health
• why it’s crucial for babies to master the ability to fall asleep unassisted, without protest or crying, and how to help them do so
• essential tips for synchronizing your twins’ sleep schedules, plus information about how twins sleep best–when to keep them together, and when it’s time to separate them
• how to recognize early drowsy cues in your babies so you can catch the sleep wave before it turns into nervous energy that will keep them awake

Sleep-training twins presents a unique set of challenges. This invaluable guide will not only get your babies to sleep through the night but help you stay healthy and rested so you can enjoy the many blessings of having more than one!

American Parent by Sam Apple

2009-06-02T00:30:00-05:00

American Parent My Strange and Surprising Adventures in Modern Babyland
Written by Sam Apple

Hardcover, 320 pages | Ballantine Books | Biography & Autobiography - Personal Memoirs; Family & Relationships - Parenting | $25.00 | 978-0-345-46504-7 (0-345-46504-0)

Part memoir, part journalism, part history, part downright strange and hilarious, American Parent takes readers on a unique tour of the world of new mothers and fathers. As Sam Apple embarks on his own journey into parenthood, he decides to put his background in journalism to good use by talking to a wide range of experts. Along the way, Apple visits with the mohel who circumcised him, enters a trance with a childbirth hypnotist, goes on a stakeout with a nanny spy, and attends a lecture on Botox for new mothers. Apple is full of questions, and none is left unexplored: Is the Lamaze method a Stalinist plot? (Yes.) Are newborns really fetuses that are born too soon? (Sort of.) Is there a universal theory that can explain the origins of circumcision in many diverse cultures? (Maybe.) Does it sting when you pour baby shampoo into your own eyes? (Big-time!)

And yet for all the unusual twists in this story–at one point Apple fantasizes about a father losing his mind and refusing to remove his BabyBjörn–the strangest twist of all might be that at its core American Parent is a deeply serious and personal book about the way emotionally vulnerable and confused new parents can get lost in the increasingly complex labyrinth of baby products, classes, and fads.

Parenthood is the oldest subject of all. In American Parent, Sam Apple makes it feel entirely new.

The Wall Street Journal. Financial Guidebook for New Parents by Stacey L. Bradford

2009-06-02T00:30:00-05:00

The Wall Street Journal. Financial Guidebook for New Parents
Written by Stacey L. Bradford

Trade Paperback, 208 pages | Three Rivers Press | Business & Economics - Personal Finance; Family & Relationships - Parenting | $14.95 | 978-0-307-40707-8 (0-307-40707-1)

A practical approach to affording your kids from cradle to college.

Bringing home your bouncing baby boy or girl should be an exciting time of celebration–not cause for worry about how you’re going to pay for feeding, clothing, and caring for your new bundle of expenses. The average family will spend between $11,000 and $16,000 during a new baby’s first year, and more than $200,000 before a kid’s eighteenth birthday. Unfortunately, a second child only doubles your costs, with little economy of scale for each additional baby.

Before you start using these statistics as birth control, take a deep breath and know that you can have a family and make a comfortable future for your children while saving for your own important goals. The Wall Street Journal Financial Guidebook for New Parents shows you the way, with information on how to:

• Safeguard your child’s well-being with wills, trusts, and life insurance
• Best weigh your child-care options and decide whether to go back to work
• Save on taxes with child-friendly tax credits and deductions plus tax-advantaged benefits at work
• Manage your family’s health-care costs
• Save for long-term costs by setting up a college fund
• Spend smart and save money at every stage of your child’s development
• Continue to contribute to your own retirement savings

From maternity (and paternity) leave to flexible spending accounts to 529 college plans, The Wall Street Journal Financial Guidebook for New Parents provides all the information you need to meet your child’s expenses while also protecting your family’s financial security.

Boys Should Be Boys by Meg Meeker, M.D.

2009-05-19T00:30:00-05:00

Boys Should Be Boys 7 Secrets to Raising Healthy Sons
Written by Meg Meeker

Trade Paperback, 304 pages | Ballantine Books | Family & Relationships - Parenting | $15.00 | 978-0-345-51369-4 (0-345-51369-X)

In Boys Should Be Boys, one of our most trusted authorities helps parents restore the delights of boyhood and enable today’s boys to become the mature, confident, and thoughtful men of tomorrow. Boys will always be boys–rambunctious, adventurous, and curious, climbing trees, building forts, playing tackle football, and pushing their growing bodies to the limit as part of the rite of passage into manhood. But today our sons face an increasingly hostile world that doesn’t value the high-spirited, magical nature of boys. In a collective call to let our boys be boys, Dr. Meg Meeker explores the secrets to boyhood, including

• why rules and boundaries are crucial–and why boys feel lost without them
• how the outdoors is still the best playground, offering the sense of adventure that only Mother Nature can provide
• the essential ways to preserve a boy’s innocence (and help him grow up)
• the pitfalls moms and dads face when talking to their sons
• why moody and rebellious boys are not normal–and how to address such behavior
• how and when the “big” questions in life should be discussed: why he is here, what his purpose is, and why he is important

Parents are blessed with intuition and heart, but raising sons is a daunting responsibility. This uplifting guide makes the job a little easier.

Parking Lot Rules & 75 Other Ideas for Raising Amazing Children by Tom Sturges

2009-05-19T00:30:00-05:00

Parking Lot Rules & 75 Other Ideas for Raising Amazing Children
Written by Tom Sturges

Trade Paperback, 224 pages | Ballantine Books | Family & Relationships - Parenting | $14.00 | 978-0-345-50378-7 (0-345-50378-3)

When Tom Sturges became a father, he wanted to be the greatest father who ever walked the earth. So Sturges asked a lot of questions. He picked up ideas, advice, and tips from parents, grandparents, even rock stars and sports legends–anyone who had unique insights to share. The result is this practical, inspiring rule book for raising healthy, happy, safe, and cherished children. Philosophical, sensible, and empowering, these 76 ideas include such gems as:

• Teach your children that they have to follow the “Parking Lot Rules” whenever they are in (you guessed it) a parking lot. They must stay close. There is to be no trailing behind. No racing ahead. No exceptions.
• Let your child feel welcome and loved from the instant he or she walks into a room. “Smile When You See Them,” and leave no doubt that, at that moment, your child is the most important person in your world.
• Since parents who yell intimidate, and those who use a calm tone inspire, “When You Get Upset, Whisper”–and make sure your message is heard.
• Follow “The Bill Walton Rule”: If you can’t be on time, be early.
• When your children accomplish something great in sports, use “The ESPN Rule” by telling the story in intimate detail and filling them with the belief that they can do it again and again.

Parking Lot Rules puts a fresh new spin on parenting, in an inspiring handbook full of heart and kindness that will resonate with joy and meaning for parents and children everywhere.

BabyCakes by Erin McKenna

2009-05-05T00:30:00-05:00

BabyCakes Vegan, (Mostly) Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery
Written by Erin McKenna

Hardcover, 144 pages | Clarkson Potter | Cooking - Baking | $24.00 | 978-0-307-40883-9 (0-307-40883-3)

Forget everything
you’ve heard about
health-conscious baking.

Simply, BabyCakes is your key to an enlightened, indulgent, sweets-filled future. This is important news not only for parents whose children have allergies, for vegans, and for others who struggle with food sensitivities, but also for all you sugar-loving traditionalists. The recipes in these pages prove that there is a healthy alternative to recklessly made desserts, one that doesn't sacrifice taste or texture.

Having experimented endlessly with alternative, health-conscious sweeteners, flours, and thickeners, Erin McKenna, the proprietress of beloved bakery BabyCakes NYC, developed these recipes–most are gluten-free, all are without refined sugar–in hopes of combating her own wheat, dairy, and sugar sensitivities. In BabyCakes, she shares detailed information about the ingredients she uses (coconut flour, xanthan gum, and agave nectar, for example) and how to substitute them properly for common ones–all the while guiding you safely through techniques she’s spent years perfecting.

When BabyCakes NYC opened on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 2005, it helped propel the gluten-free and vegan baking movement into a new stratosphere. Suddenly there was a destination for those with wheat allergies and other dietary restrictions–and, soon enough, celebrities and dessert lovers of every kind–to indulge freely in delectable muffins and teacakes, brownies and cookies, pies and cobblers.

Enclosed within these pages are all the “secrets” you’ll need to bring the greatness of BabyCakes NYC into your own home as well as raves and recommendations from devotees such as Natalie Portman, Jason Schwartzman, Mary-Louise Parker, Zooey Deschanel, and Pamela Anderson.

For confectionists of all kinds, delicious alternatives lie within: Red Velvet Cupcakes, Chocolate Shortbread Scones with Caramelized Bananas, Strawberry Shortcake, and BabyCakes NYC’s celebrated frosting (so delicious it has fans tipping back frosting shots!), to name just a few. Finally, Erin’s blissful desserts are yours for the baking!

Bad Mother by Ayelet Waldman

2009-05-05T00:30:00-05:00

Bad Mother A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace
Written by Ayelet Waldman

Hardcover, 224 pages | Doubleday | Family & Relationships - Motherhood; Humor | $24.95 | 978-0-385-52793-4 (0-385-52793-4)

In the tradition of recent hits like The Bitch in the House and Perfect Madness comes a hilarious and controversial book that every woman will have an opinion about, written by America’s most outrageous writer.

In our mothers’ day there were good mothers, neglectful mothers, and occasionally great mothers.

Today we have only Bad Mothers.

If you work, you’re neglectful; if you stay home, you’re smothering. If you discipline, you’re buying them a spot on the shrink’s couch; if you let them run wild, they will be into drugs by seventh grade. If you buy organic, you’re spending their college fund; if you don’t, you’re risking all sorts of allergies and illnesses.

Is it any wonder so many women refer to themselves at one time or another as “a bad mother”? Ayelet Waldman says it’s time for women to get over it and get on with it, in a book that is sure to spark the same level of controversy as her now legendary “Modern Love” piece, in which she confessed to loving her husband more than her children.

Covering topics as diverse as the hysteria of competitive parenting (Whose toddler can recite the planets in order from the sun?), the relentless pursuits of the Bad Mother police, balancing the work-family dynamic, and the bane of every mother’s existence (homework, that is), Bad Mother illuminates the anxieties that riddle motherhood today, while providing women with the encouragement they need to give themselves a break.

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