A solid, if opinionated, look at parenting from a teacher’s perspective.
A veteran teacher shares parenting lessons learned from her students.
In this debut guide, Essalat offers parents insights derived from her work as a teacher and principal. The book covers both practical tips—for instance, when students make negative comments about themselves or their classmates, she requires them to create a list of positives on the same subject—and a broader argument. She makes the case in favor of establishing high expectations, stepping back to allow children to make mistakes and learn from them, and establishing lifelong habits of independence and self-reliance. The chapters are organized thematically, and each includes anecdotes from the author’s teaching experiences—she is not a parent herself, which she acknowledges from the outset. She also delivers concrete suggestions for parents to implement with their children to improve family relations, school performance, and general preparedness for adult life. The topics will be familiar to many readers of parenting books, from social media use and respectful behavior to managing homework and having productive conversations. But with its focus on the collaborative relationship between parents and teachers, the book presents a unique viewpoint. The writing is generally strong and well informed, based on practical experience and a solid understanding of child development. (Both references and additional resources are included in the backmatter.) But Essalat’s tone can be alarmist at times, particularly regarding social media (she tells students they are “putting our entire community in jeopardy” by posting videos that include the school’s name), as well as judgmental (“If someone isn’t going to make the time, have the time, spend the time with their own kids, then why have them at all?”). She also displays a touch of kids-these-days exasperation (“Just how little our kids appreciate things anymore”). For readers who appreciate the back-to-basics, traditionalist tone of the book, it can be a useful collection of advice and strategies for strengthening relationships with children and helping them to succeed in school. The volume also supplies a well-crafted insider’s perspective on how teachers view their students and how parents can best work with them.
A solid, if opinionated, look at parenting from a teacher’s perspective.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-951412-05-0
Page Count: 145
Publisher: The Collective Book Studio
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2020
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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