Parenting Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Ready for Reality by Angela Troppa, LCSW

Outlining a comprehensive foundation for a healthy and self-sufficient life, Ready for Reality: Teaching Kids the Skills They Need to Thrive in the Real World by Angela Troppa, LCSW is an innovative guide for adults as they prepare children for the future.

Following a straightforward structure of seven broad units of knowledge (Household, Safety, Social Skills, etc.), with each divided into related topics, the content can be quickly navigated based on the child’s age, as well as the skills they need to sharpen. From step-by-step explanations of domestic tasks around the home and crucial safety lessons to proper mealtime etiquette […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2025-07-01T17:52:23+02:00June 30th, 2025|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Parenting Book Reviews|

Review: Pearls: Parenting Practices by Lisa Guy, Illustrated by Cameron Shields

A beautifully constructed guide aimed at navigating parenthood, Pearls: Parenting Practices by Lisa Guy is a thoroughly unique combination of parenting memoir, self-help aphorisms, and actionable steps for raising children.

Layed out in part like a children’s book with exquisitely rendered illustrations by Cameron Shields, each chapter begins with a short stanza about the next stage of a child’s life before Guy expands on her personal experience, talking freely about the process of trial and error that helped her raise her five children. From sleep to breastfeeding, solving parental tensions to devising kids’ games, the book answers practical questions about […]

Marina Dora Martino2024-08-20T12:18:01+02:00July 23rd, 2024|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Parenting Book Reviews|

Yes! You Will Understand Your Teen With ADHD by Jaycee Donovan

Compassionate and informative, Yes! You Will Understand Your Teen With ADHD by Jaycee Donovan is a hands-on guide for parents who are dealing with ADHD in their families, full of practical tips and background research that will help parents understand ADHD better, while also improving their relationship with their children.

As Donovan outlines, ADHD in teenagers can manifest itself with high-level anxiety, depression, and anti-social behaviors that can cause trouble at school and tension at home. Often these symptoms are misunderstood as bad teenage behavior, which will not only worsen the relationship between parents and child, but can also inflict […]

Marina Dora Martino2023-05-11T14:16:18+02:00May 11th, 2023|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Parenting Book Reviews, Psychology Book Reviews|

Review: Parenting with Kindness and Consequences by Barbara Frandsen

Parenting with Kindness and Consequences by Barbara Frandsen is a fascinating, detailed guide to parenting that blends the professional and the personal into one coherent vision. With a strong emphasis on how parents can help raise independent, mature, and self-assured kids, this is a timely book, passionately written, and full of real-world, practical advice.

The title posits the fundamental juxtaposition at the heart of the book, a dichotomy that turns out to be a false one: should parents emphasize the positive but risk spoiling them, or be willing to discipline but risk being too cold and harsh? This is a […]

Marina Dora Martino2023-08-01T11:12:46+02:00May 6th, 2023|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Parenting Book Reviews|

Review: Kidadkill by David Chick

Launching a scathing rebuke of the family law system in England, David Chick details his own harrowing battle against this secretive bureaucratic nightmare in Kidadkill: Spiderman of Tower Bridge.

More than 20 years ago, the author’s life was turned upside down when his relationship with his partner Jo began to break down. As an unmarried father to his beloved daughter Lauryn, he had very few rights to protect, house, and safeguard her. Instead, backed up by bogus claims of violence and abuse, Jo was able to control the narrative and prevent David from seeing his daughter for extended periods […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2023-01-09T13:45:09+02:00November 29th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews, Parenting Book Reviews|

Handing Down Hope by Nate Slaymaker

A refreshing and generation-spanning guide towards healthier communication and a brighter future, Handing Down Hope by Nate Slaymaker is a relatable map for the mighty task of parenting, coaching, or managing teenagers.

Through his own experiences with foster children, generations of students, and other assorted teenagers coming in and out of his life – some with significant challenges and unfair amounts of baggage – Slaymaker has constructed a succinct catalogue of lessons learned. The chapter framing is intriguing, laying out both the common errors and more effective strategies as binaries – rather than acting purely as a “how-to” book, it […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2021-10-07T06:53:17+02:00October 7th, 2021|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Education Book Reviews, Parenting Book Reviews|

Review: Just Buy Her a Dress and She’ll Be Fine by Amanda Dodson Gremillion

The emotionally charged yet sensible treatise, Just Buy Her a Dress and She’ll Be Fine by Amanda Dodson Gremillion, is the moving story of postpartum depression and OCD as it played out in the author’s own life, and how that became a medium for guiding others.

Gremillion’s mental distress seemed to begin when she had her first child. She and her husband Jay had met in their early teens, courted for ten years, and married – happily, at first. Both wanted a child and when their daughter Aubrie Lynn was born, she was welcomed.

Soon afterwards, the problems set in. […]

SPR2020-10-19T03:28:30+02:00October 13th, 2020|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Health Book Reviews, Memoir Book Reviews, Parenting Book Reviews|

Dad@Home: Fully Domesticated by Gregory J. Tysowski

Dad@Home: Fully Domesticated by Gregory J. Tysowski is a kind of “Mr. Mom” for the current generation, a time when stay-at-home fathers are becoming more and more common. Tysowski’s wife was working as a high-powered, and well-paid, lawyer, so it was decided when their first child was born that Tysowski would stay at home. The purpose of Dad@Home is not only to share his own experience, but to also show how stay-at-home fatherhood is completely normal. It’s difficult, to be sure, but so is parenting for anyone.