An accessible, enthusiastic manual on how to raise resilient, confident kids.
Harwood, a therapist, presents a practical guide that sets up close relational bonds as the foundation of parenting success.
A child with a secure attachment to at least one caregiver is more likely to be independent, caring, confident, and resilient, asserts the author in the introduction to her new parenting guide, which approaches its topic in a chatty, friendly, and effervescent style. Harwood breaks down basic concepts of attachment and offers empowering tools for caregivers of kids of any age, while acknowledging the challenges of raising neurodivergent children, or kids who have gone through trauma. She also notes the inevitable gaps that a book by a straight white woman will have when approaching the topic of identity oppression. In discussions reinforced by solid data and actionable advice, Harwood proposes a “high structure, high nurture” environment as the best parenting strategy—one in which conflict is an opportunity for discovery, and the emphasis is on cooperation: “When we create a secure connection with our children,” she writes, “it helps them to trust our capacity to help them through the hard stuff.” She illuminates each chapter with relevant stories from her and other parents’ experiences. The book also includes “Nerd Alert” sections, which delve deep into the research and science behind various concepts. These data-rich sections can be easily skipped by those who aren’t interested, but those who are will find engaging explanations of the prefrontal cortex, internal scripts, Edward Tronick’s well-known 1970s “still face” experiment, and more. Harwood’s boisterous prose invigorates lessons in managing conflict, enforcing structure, navigating difficult topics (such as addiction, racism, and abuse), and developing confidence. The type of parenting that this book espouses won’t come naturally to all readers, and it emphasizes that secure attachment isn’t possible without putting in the work to address one’s own attachment traumas, which she calls “ghost hunting”; the more settled and present caregivers are, she points out, the easier it is for kids to find comfort and connection with them.
An accessible, enthusiastic manual on how to raise resilient, confident kids.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9781632175465
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Sasquatch Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.
The late actor offers a gentle guide for living with more purpose, love, and joy.
Mixing poetry, prescriptive challenges, and elements of memoir, Heche (1969-2022) delivers a narrative that is more encouraging workbook than life story. The author wants to share what she has discovered over the course of a life filled with abuse, advocacy, and uncanny turning points. Her greatest discovery? Love. “Open yourself up to love and transform kindness from a feeling you extend to those around you to actions that you perform for them,” she writes. “Only by caring can we open ourselves up to the universe, and only by opening up to the universe can we fully experience all the wonders that it holds, the greatest of which is love.” Throughout the occasionally overwrought text, Heche is heavy on the concept of care. She wants us to experience joy as she does, and she provides a road map for how to get there. Instead of slinking away from Hollywood and the ridicule that she endured there, Heche found the good and hung on, with Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford starring as particularly shining knights in her story. Some readers may dismiss this material as vapid Hollywood stuff, but Heche’s perspective is an empathetic blend of Buddhism (minimize suffering), dialectical behavioral therapy (tolerating distress), Christianity (do unto others), and pre-Socratic philosophy (sufficient reason). “You’re not out to change the whole world, but to increase the levels of love and kindness in the world, drop by drop,” she writes. “Over time, these actions wear away the coldness, hate, and indifference around us as surely as water slowly wearing away stone.” Readers grieving her loss will take solace knowing that she lived her love-filled life on her own terms. Heche’s business and podcast partner, Heather Duffy, writes the epilogue, closing the book on a life well lived.
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781627783316
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Viva Editions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
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