A wise and comprehensive game plan for helping kids—and their parents—navigate the internet.
A parents’ guide to helping children thrive in an increasingly digital world.
“As parents in today’s ever-expanding digital AI world, we can no longer take the advice of our parents or even recycle the things that we learned as kids,” writes occupational therapist and child development expert Schmalle, the single parent of a Gen Z daughter, in her nonfiction debut. Thanks to the universal prevalence of screens (along with the lingering social disjunction of the Covid-19 pandemic), kids are growing up “distracted, dysregulated, and disorganized,” all of which is amplified and complicated by the growing ubiquity of AI, per the author. In response, Schmalle argues that we should find new habits and develop new routines to teach children how to navigate the dizzying terrain of the new digital and AI world. She organizes her proactive approach into “Five Pillars”: “Save Yourself First” (the best way to help your children develop healthy social skills is to “cultivate them in your own life first”), “Connect and Collaborate” (“Increase face-to-face interactions, limit tech disruptions”), “Move With a Purpose” (balance screen time, sleep, and exercise), “Learn and Grow Sensationally” (“opt for multisensory learning tools over digital solutions”), and, finally, “Build Digital Awareness and Safety” (teach digital literacy). She makes sure to include considerations for neurodivergent children, and each chapter offers assignments or suggestions for filling out exercises in the Family Playbook, a free resource that can be downloaded online, along with generous endnotes.
All of this material is clearly and forcefully presented with a great deal of hard-edged clarity that is a welcome change when discussing a subject that often tempts writers toward treacle. Schmalle is direct about the dangers of this new “Wild West,” noting that normal societal rules don’t apply. “It’s a breeding ground for predators who would take advantage of the most vulnerable in our society—children and the elderly,” she warns. “Parents are often the biggest violators of their children’s privacy without even realizing it,” she asserts, noting that “mommy bloggers” and the like show the world every moment of their kids’ lives without their permission, transmitting the message to their children that they need not respect the privacy of others. In erudite and sympathetic prose, the author helps readers parse the complexities of an online world where, as she grimly points out, no amount of parental controls will let parents see inside every Snapchat or Discord post their kids are going to encounter. Schmalle observes that there are growing parenting trends of keeping kids away from social media until age 16 and forbidding preteens from owning cellphones, but the book is empowering rather than prescriptive; the author deftly interweaves her own personal experiences throughout the broader framework of the Family Playbook she’s devised, but her book’s strongest element is its tough-love optimism. Schmalle is unflinchingly clear about the dangers of this new world, but, as she writes from her own experience, “being overwhelmed is just a feeling.” Parents feeling intimidated by the immensity of the online world they know their kids encounter will be both informed and encouraged by the insights the author shares here.
A wise and comprehensive game plan for helping kids—and their parents—navigate the internet.Pub Date: Nov. 20, 2025
ISBN: 9780996565325
Page Count: 278
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: yesterday
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.
The former iCarly star reflects on her difficult childhood.
In her debut memoir, titled after her 2020 one-woman show, singer and actor McCurdy (b. 1992) reveals the raw details of what she describes as years of emotional abuse at the hands of her demanding, emotionally unstable stage mom, Debra. Born in Los Angeles, the author, along with three older brothers, grew up in a home controlled by her mother. When McCurdy was 3, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she initially survived, the disease’s recurrence would ultimately take her life when the author was 21. McCurdy candidly reconstructs those in-between years, showing how “my mom emotionally, mentally, and physically abused me in ways that will forever impact me.” Insistent on molding her only daughter into “Mommy’s little actress,” Debra shuffled her to auditions beginning at age 6. As she matured and starting booking acting gigs, McCurdy remained “desperate to impress Mom,” while Debra became increasingly obsessive about her daughter’s physical appearance. She tinted her daughter’s eyelashes, whitened her teeth, enforced a tightly monitored regimen of “calorie restriction,” and performed regular genital exams on her as a teenager. Eventually, the author grew understandably resentful and tried to distance herself from her mother. As a young celebrity, however, McCurdy became vulnerable to eating disorders, alcohol addiction, self-loathing, and unstable relationships. Throughout the book, she honestly portrays Debra’s cruel perfectionist personality and abusive behavior patterns, showing a woman who could get enraged by everything from crooked eyeliner to spilled milk. At the same time, McCurdy exhibits compassion for her deeply flawed mother. Late in the book, she shares a crushing secret her father revealed to her as an adult. While McCurdy didn’t emerge from her childhood unscathed, she’s managed to spin her harrowing experience into a sold-out stage act and achieve a form of catharsis that puts her mind, body, and acting career at peace.
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982185-82-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.
Memories and life lessons inspired by the author’s mother, who was murdered in 2021.
“Neither my mother nor I knew that her last text to me would be the words ‘Think you’ll be happy,’ ” Avant writes, "but it is fitting that she left me with a mantra for resiliency.” The author, a filmmaker and former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, begins her first book on the night she learned her mother, Jacqueline Avant, had been fatally shot during a home invasion. “One of my first thoughts,” she writes, “was, ‘Oh God, please don’t let me hate this man. Give me the strength not to hate him.’ ” Daughter of Clarence Avant, known as the “Black Godfather” due to his work as a pioneering music executive, the author describes growing up “in a house that had a revolving door of famous people,” from Ella Fitzgerald to Muhammad Ali. “I don’t take for granted anything I have achieved in my life as a Black American woman,” writes Avant. “And I recognize my unique upbringing…..I was taught to honor our past and pay forward our fruits.” The book, which is occasionally repetitive, includes tributes to her mother from figures like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton, but the narrative core is the author’s direct, faith-based, unwaveringly positive messages to readers—e.g., “I don’t want to carry the sadness and anger I have toward the man who did this to my mother…so I’m worshiping God amid the worst storm imaginable”; "Success and feeling good are contagious. I’m all about positive contagious vibrations!” Avant frequently quotes Bible verses, and the bulk of the text reflects the spirit of her daily prayer “that everything is in divine order.” Imploring readers to practice proactive behavior, she writes, “We have to always find the blessing, to be the blessing.”
Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9780063304413
Page Count: 288
Publisher: HarperOne
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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