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
Waiting With Gabriel: A Story of Cherishing a Baby's Brief Life
By Amy Kuebelbeck; 174 pages. From the Cover: "Two of the most primal parental instincts are to keep your child alive and to protect your child from unnecessary pain. Those instincts usually do not collide. With our baby, they did."
Bottom Line: When Amy Kuebelbeck was 5-1/2 months pregnant, the child she was carrying was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a condition in which the left side of the heart does not develop. This moving memoir tells of the choices she and her husband made to spare their child painful medical procedures and to celebrate the life he had, however brief.
Bottom Line: When Amy Kuebelbeck was 5-1/2 months pregnant, the child she was carrying was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a condition in which the left side of the heart does not develop. This moving memoir tells of the choices she and her husband made to spare their child painful medical procedures and to celebrate the life he had, however brief.
Wake Up Parents!!!
Cover image courtesy of JC Pennington
By JC Pennington; 193 pages. Subtitle: An Exposé of the Public School System
Bottom Line: Do you believe that educators have your child's best interests at heart, that administrators work for the students, that report cards offer a true assessment, that academic or behavioral failures are your child's problem? This exposé suggests that those assumptions are not only naive but dangerous to your child's scholastic health. It's a call to arms for parents -- of special and regular education students alike -- to question, verify, confirm, and check up.
Bottom Line: Do you believe that educators have your child's best interests at heart, that administrators work for the students, that report cards offer a true assessment, that academic or behavioral failures are your child's problem? This exposé suggests that those assumptions are not only naive but dangerous to your child's scholastic health. It's a call to arms for parents -- of special and regular education students alike -- to question, verify, confirm, and check up.
What Did You Say? What Do You Mean?
Cover image courtesy of Jessica Kingsley Publishers
By Jude Welton, illustrated by Jane Telford; 112 pages. Subtitle: An Illustrated Guide to Understanding Metaphors.
Bottom Line: A guide to understanding metaphors might be the sort of thing you'd expect to find in a high school English class, not a special-needs parenting bookshelf. But this cleverly illustrated book was instead designed to help children with Asperger syndrome decipher expressions that don't mean what they say. In fact, any literal-thinking child can benefit from this cheerful resource.
Bottom Line: A guide to understanding metaphors might be the sort of thing you'd expect to find in a high school English class, not a special-needs parenting bookshelf. But this cleverly illustrated book was instead designed to help children with Asperger syndrome decipher expressions that don't mean what they say. In fact, any literal-thinking child can benefit from this cheerful resource.
What It Takes to Pull Me Through
Cover image courtesy of Houghton Mifflin
Book by David L. Marcus; 338 pages. Subtitle: Why Teenagers Get in Trouble and How Four of Them Got Out.
Bottom Line: Ever wondered what goes on in one of those therapeutic boarding schools for troubled teens? Author Marcus takes readers on a 15-month journey with Group 23 at the Academy of Swift River in Massachusetts as they survive wilderness outings, truth-telling sessions, rituals and restrictions, breakthroughs and fallbacks, and a field trip to Costa Rica. It's a tough place to be a fly on the wall.
Bottom Line: Ever wondered what goes on in one of those therapeutic boarding schools for troubled teens? Author Marcus takes readers on a 15-month journey with Group 23 at the Academy of Swift River in Massachusetts as they survive wilderness outings, truth-telling sessions, rituals and restrictions, breakthroughs and fallbacks, and a field trip to Costa Rica. It's a tough place to be a fly on the wall.
When the Labels Don't Fit
Cover image courtesy of Three Rivers Press
By Barbara Probst; 273 pages. Subtitle: A New Approach to Raising a Challenging Child.
Bottom Line: Labels really don't have all that much to do with this helpful, upbeat behavior-management guide to working with your child's traits and temperament. The book's advice will be useful if your child has a diagnosis, if you've decided against getting one, or if the unique mix that is your child defies categorization altogether.
Bottom Line: Labels really don't have all that much to do with this helpful, upbeat behavior-management guide to working with your child's traits and temperament. The book's advice will be useful if your child has a diagnosis, if you've decided against getting one, or if the unique mix that is your child defies categorization altogether.
Will's Choice: A Suicidal Teen, a Desperate Mother, and a Chronicle of Recovery
Cover image courtesy of PriceGrabber
By Gail Griffith; 320 pages. From the Book Jacket: "A memoir with a social conscience, this book not only examines one family's struggle to overcome depression and an attempted suicide, it lays bare the social, political, and economic challenges that American families face in combating this most mysterious and stigmatized of illnesses."
Bottom Line: Not a feel-good book about overcoming tragedy, this is more of a feel-uneasy book about managed care, psychiatric uncertainty, and the mysterious workings of the teenage mind.
Bottom Line: Not a feel-good book about overcoming tragedy, this is more of a feel-uneasy book about managed care, psychiatric uncertainty, and the mysterious workings of the teenage mind.
Your Child in the Balance
Cover image courtesy of PriceGrabber
By Kevin T. Kalikow, M.D.; 276 pages. Subtitle: An Insider's Guide for Parents to the Psychiatric Medicine Dilemma.
Bottom Line: Looking for a hard and fast answer to the question of whether psychiatric medications will be safe, effective, and necessary for your child? Too bad, you won't find it here. You will find an evenhanded look at the pros and cons, from a psychiatrist who is cautiously pro-medication but entirely mindful of its pitfalls. Whichever side of the fence you're on, or even if you're straddling it, you'll find some validation for your point of view here. Some food for thought, too.
Bottom Line: Looking for a hard and fast answer to the question of whether psychiatric medications will be safe, effective, and necessary for your child? Too bad, you won't find it here. You will find an evenhanded look at the pros and cons, from a psychiatrist who is cautiously pro-medication but entirely mindful of its pitfalls. Whichever side of the fence you're on, or even if you're straddling it, you'll find some validation for your point of view here. Some food for thought, too.
Your Critically Ill Child
Cover image courtesy of PriceGrabber
By Dr. Christopher M. Johnson; 212 pages. Subtitle: Life and Death Choices Parents Must Face.
Bottom Line: For parents accompanying a critically ill child into a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), it can be hard to know what to expect, and what to make of all the tending and treating and tweeting of scary machinery. Dr. Johnson, former director of the Mayo Clinic's PICU, introduces readers to his specialty, pediatric critical care, and to the expertise and guesswork and dumb luck that goes into reversing the progress of devastating illness and injury.
Bottom Line: For parents accompanying a critically ill child into a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), it can be hard to know what to expect, and what to make of all the tending and treating and tweeting of scary machinery. Dr. Johnson, former director of the Mayo Clinic's PICU, introduces readers to his specialty, pediatric critical care, and to the expertise and guesswork and dumb luck that goes into reversing the progress of devastating illness and injury.
