KIDS: Day In and Day Out

A huge, broadly opinionated parenting book which draws on contributors as different as Franz Kafka, Margaret Mead, Dick Cavett, and M. F. K. Fisher. The project organizers have arranged this behemoth somewhat loosely, offering advice on everything from immunization shots and divorce revelations to car-trip snacks and growing plants. Astonishingly, the counsel is often compatible, although in particular cases opposing views are printed together, such as Renata Adler and Herb Kohl on Sesame Street (she for, he against). Parents can find blueprints for building a plywood bed platform or a sample statement for firing a babysitter, peruse the section on children's books (with comments from White, Sendak, and other eminences), or just browse among the quotations. There's a minimum of cute personal anecdotes and a real effort to mingle authorities with everyday folk: the section on games includes Terry Orlick, the Opies, Brian Sutton-Smith, and Adam Blumenthal (age twelve). A more ambitious but no more dynamic source than Ourselves and Our Children (1978).