A solid, intelligent addition to the child-development literature.
An eye-opening journey among a strange tribe: American adolescents.
Washington Post education writer Stepp considers young adolescents (ages 10 to 14) as distinct from older teenagers as infants are from kindergartners, although many popular books lump the two age groups together. Life is tough for these kids, she shows: not only are hormones kicking in to cause weird skin eruptions and weirder behavior, but most children at this tender age are muddling toward a sense of who they are, crushed by the forces of peer pressure and an educational establishment that has no idea what to do with them. Stepp examines children in three very different places (Los Angeles; Ulysses, Kansas; and Durham, North Carolina) to discover that they are much the same everywhere. Another discovery, she notes, is that children’s home lives today are generally a mess: “I went looking,” she writes, “for typical kids living in typical families and quickly learned that there is no such thing. The Ozzie and Harriet family really is a myth and has been for years.” Faced with a family structure in which one parent or another is largely absent, touched by violence, drugs, and crime, and confused by the biological changes they are undergoing, most of these children, Stepp suggests, turn out blissfully normal, all things considered, and despite the fact that they are so badly served by teaching methods that inhibit their socialization. (Schools would do well, Stepp advises, to consider European and Asian models of group problem-solving that foster teamwork and temper an already fierce atmosphere of competition.) Stepp, herself a mother, closes her book with helpful hints for parents on how to understand their children—which, more than anything else, involves taking the time to watch and listen.
A solid, intelligent addition to the child-development literature.Pub Date: July 1, 2000
ISBN: 1-57322-160-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
Mostly conservative in its stance and choices but common-sensical and current.
Savvy counsel and starter lists for fretting parents.
New York Times Book Review editor Paul (My Life With Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues, 2017, etc.) and Russo, the children’s book editor for that publication, provide standard-issue but deftly noninvasive strategies for making books and reading integral elements in children’s lives. Some of it is easier said than done, but all is intended to promote “the natural, timeless, time-stopping joys of reading” for pleasure. Mediumwise, print reigns supreme, with mild approval for audio and video books but discouraging words about reading apps and the hazards of children becoming “slaves to the screen.” In a series of chapters keyed to stages of childhood, infancy to the teen years, the authors supplement their advice with short lists of developmentally appropriate titles—by their lights, anyway: Ellen Raskin’s Westing Game on a list for teens?—all kitted out with enticing annotations. The authors enlarge their offerings with thematic lists, from “Books That Made Us Laugh” to “Historical Fiction.” In each set, the authors go for a mix of recent and perennially popular favorites, leaving off mention of publication dates so that hoary classics like Janice May Udry’s A Tree Is Nice seem as fresh as David Wiesner’s Flotsam and Carson Ellis’ Du Iz Tak? and sidestepping controversial titles and themes in the sections for younger and middle-grade readers—with a few exceptions, such as a cautionary note that some grown-ups see “relentless overparenting” in Margaret Wise Brown’s Runaway Bunny. Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series doesn’t make the cut except for a passing reference to its “troubling treatment of Indians.” The teen lists tend to be edgier, salted with the provocative likes of Art Spiegelman’s Maus and Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give, and a nod to current demands for more LGBTQ and other #ownvoices books casts at least a glance beyond the mainstream. Yaccarino leads a quartet of illustrators who supplement the occasional book cover thumbnails with vignettes and larger views of children happily absorbed in reading.
Mostly conservative in its stance and choices but common-sensical and current.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5235-0530-2
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Romance feels deeply liberating in Zalmanek’s hands.
Stories and guidance designed to keep the fires burning in your relationship.
This book is about adventures, unusual and exciting experiences in love–particularly with established couples–that speak of abiding affection. And they speak loudly, because you have to work to keep these adventures moving. They range from daily, loving gestures–the little threads that sew you together–to grand celebrations. Zalmanek, a self-proclaimed “Romantic Adventurer,” begins with the baby steps needed to get started. Fearless where she treads, Zalmanek is happy to give tips on everything from marriage proposals to divorce ceremonies. Each chapter is filled with episodes of romantic adventure intended to jump-start the imagination in the form of illustrative stories from people who have taken one of her workshops. She stresses the importance of being an attentive and aware mate–to understand your lover’s surprise quotient, for example–to explore the sensual acts that please the two of you, to learn how to give (and receive) unexpected gifts and to develop your own romantic traditions. She wants you to cherish the act of intimacy, to step back for a moment, regain some perspective and realize how important it is to keep adding fuel to the fire that drives your romance. Best of all, she makes it sound like an awful lot of fun.
Romance feels deeply liberating in Zalmanek’s hands.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-9766879-0-9
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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