Use this alphabetical index to find books that have been reviewed for the Harried Parent's Book Club.
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J-L | M-N | O | P-Q | R | S | T | U-V | W-Z
Easy for You to Say: Q&As for Teens Living With Chronic Illness or Disability
Cover image courtesy of Firefly Books
By Miriam Kaufman, MD; 285 pages. From the Book Cover: "Tens of thousands of teens have to deal every day with problems arising from their chronic disabilities. ... Dr. Miriam Kaufman addresses these challenges with passion and sensitivity, and relates to teens in an approachable way."
Bottom Line: Not for the faint of heart, this book is all about giving unflinchingly frank replies to the kinds of questions teens are embarrassed to ask their parents (and parents, all too often, are embarrassed to answer).
Bottom Line: Not for the faint of heart, this book is all about giving unflinchingly frank replies to the kinds of questions teens are embarrassed to ask their parents (and parents, all too often, are embarrassed to answer).
The Elephant in the Playroom
Cover image courtesy of Denise Brodey
By Denise Brodey; 235 pages. Subtitle: Ordinary Parents Write Intimately and Honestly About the Extraordinary Highs and Heartbreaking Lows of Raising Kids With Special Needs.
Bottom Line: That's quite a subtitle there, isn't it? Intimate! Honest! Extraordinary! Heartbreaking! Brodey, who compiled and annotated these essays by fellow parents of children with special needs, is a woman's magazine editor by trade, and a lot of these essays feel like the sort of thing you'd read in a magazine and feel good about. Reading a whole bunch in a row diminishes the impact, though; pick and choose at will.
Bottom Line: That's quite a subtitle there, isn't it? Intimate! Honest! Extraordinary! Heartbreaking! Brodey, who compiled and annotated these essays by fellow parents of children with special needs, is a woman's magazine editor by trade, and a lot of these essays feel like the sort of thing you'd read in a magazine and feel good about. Reading a whole bunch in a row diminishes the impact, though; pick and choose at will.
Elijah's Cup
Cover image courtesy of Simon & Schuster
By Valerie Paradiz; 242 pages. Subtitle: A Family's Journey into the Community and Culture of High-Functioning Autism and Asperger's Syndrome.
Bottom Line: Like many a special-needs mothering memoir before it, this is as much about the emotional journey of the parent as the developmental journey of the child, but it has a refreshing take on autism as something to be considered and celebrated rather than cured, and there are interesting characters to meet along the way.
Bottom Line: Like many a special-needs mothering memoir before it, this is as much about the emotional journey of the parent as the developmental journey of the child, but it has a refreshing take on autism as something to be considered and celebrated rather than cured, and there are interesting characters to meet along the way.
Enhancing Everyday Communication for Children With Disabilities
Cover image courtesy of Brookes Publishing Co.
By Jeff Sigafoos, Michael Arthur-Kelly, and Nancy Butterfield; 166 pages. From the cover: This concise, strategy-filled guidebook is the perfect introduction to improving the communication of children with moderate, severe, and multiple disabilities.
Bottom Line: This may well be an excellent book for teachers and therapists who work with children who can't communicate in obvious ways. My review here only considers what it offers for parents, which is, not as much as I'd hoped for. If you have a nonverbal child, you may find a few useful ideas here. But otherwise, it doesn't communicate that well.
Epilepsy
Cover image courtesy of demosHealth
By Orrin Devinsky, MD; 393 pages. Subtitle: Patient and Family Guide.
Bottom Line: Newly revised in its third edition, this information-packed guidebook is full of medical information about various types of seizures and syndromes, as well as lifestyle issues for infants through adults, including school advocacy, driving problems, employment rights, legal considerations, and insurance concerns. It's a lot to take in, and you may just want to skim through as needed, but if you have a child with epilepsy, you'll want to add this to your bookshelf.
Bottom Line: Newly revised in its third edition, this information-packed guidebook is full of medical information about various types of seizures and syndromes, as well as lifestyle issues for infants through adults, including school advocacy, driving problems, employment rights, legal considerations, and insurance concerns. It's a lot to take in, and you may just want to skim through as needed, but if you have a child with epilepsy, you'll want to add this to your bookshelf.
The Essential 55
Cover image courtesy of PriceGrabber
By Ron Clark; 196 pages. Subtitle: An Award-Winning Educator's Rules for Discovering the Successful Student in Every Child.
Bottom Line: The successful student? Maybe. The Southern gentleperson is more like it. These rules are focused on kids being polite and compliant and well-mannered, and while that's all well and good, piled on 55 rules strong it sometimes feels more like a teacher's power trip than a true recipe for children's success.
Bottom Line: The successful student? Maybe. The Southern gentleperson is more like it. These rules are focused on kids being polite and compliant and well-mannered, and while that's all well and good, piled on 55 rules strong it sometimes feels more like a teacher's power trip than a true recipe for children's success.
The Explosive Child
Cover image courtesy of PriceGrabber
By Ross W. Greene, Ph.D.; 334 pages. Subtitle: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children.
Bottom Line: "Children will do well if they can." That's the philosophy behind this helpful behavior book, which then seeks to figure out why some kids can't. In this case, Greene looks at those children who seem unable to change their behavior even in the face of all reason, parental urging and dire consequences. Are they willful? Oppositional? Or just stuck?
Bottom Line: "Children will do well if they can." That's the philosophy behind this helpful behavior book, which then seeks to figure out why some kids can't. In this case, Greene looks at those children who seem unable to change their behavior even in the face of all reason, parental urging and dire consequences. Are they willful? Oppositional? Or just stuck?
