Eye-opening looks at how ancient techniques can benefit modern parents.
Time-tested parenting methods from three Indigenous cultures help a mother tame her wild toddler.
Doucleff knew there had to be a better way to parent her child, one that didn’t result in Rosy’s hitting, screaming, and throwing temper tantrums, where every day wasn’t a battle from morning to night. Using the investigative skills she has honed as a correspondent for NPR’s Science Desk, she traveled to the Yucatán to live with a Mayan family, the Arctic to spend time with an Inuit family, and Tanzania and the Hadzabe tribe to understand how other cultures raised helpful, independent, disciplined children without unnecessary drama and frustration. Doucleff shares the tips and tricks she learned along the way and includes with each chapter a distilled list of insights that can be quickly referenced when the need arises. For example, she explains how to deescalate a situation by remaining calm and instilling awe and how having a child help with chores at a young age may create more work at first but gives the child the chance to learn and assume responsibilities that help the family. Also, when a child understands the consequences of her actions, she is less likely to misbehave than if she only hears the words no or don’t. Of course, the author recommends outdoor time, emphasizes the power of stories to teach lessons, and shows why it’s important to let children speak for themselves. Doucleff, who has a doctorate in chemistry, interweaves scientific research and her own trials with Rosy into the information she learned from the Mayans, Inuits, and Hadzabe. The result is an intriguing study that should be useful to parents from any culture, especially those who are at their wits’ end with their rambunctious, untamed children.
Eye-opening looks at how ancient techniques can benefit modern parents.Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-982149-67-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
An intriguing approach to identifying and relating to one’s emotions.
An analysis of our emotions and the skills required to understand them.
We all have emotions, but how many of us have the vocabulary to accurately describe our experiences or to understand how our emotions affect the way we act? In this guide to help readers with their emotions, Brackett, the founding director of Yale University’s Center for Emotional Intelligence, presents a five-step method he calls R.U.L.E.R.: We need to recognize our emotions, understand what has caused them, be able to label them with precise terms and descriptions, know how to safely and effectively express them, and be able to regulate them in productive ways. The author walks readers through each step and provides an intriguing tool to use to help identify a specific emotion. Brackett introduces a four-square grid called a Mood Meter, which allows one to define where an emotion falls based on pleasantness and energy. He also uses four colors for each quadrant: yellow for high pleasantness and high energy, red for low pleasantness and high energy, green for high pleasantness and low energy, and blue for low pleasantness and low energy. The idea is to identify where an emotion lies in this grid in order to put the R.U.L.E.R. method to good use. The author’s research is wide-ranging, and his interweaving of his personal story with the data helps make the book less academic and more accessible to general readers. It’s particularly useful for parents and teachers who want to help children learn to handle difficult emotions so that they can thrive rather than be overwhelmed by them. The author’s system will also find use in the workplace. “Emotions are the most powerful force inside the workplace—as they are in every human endeavor,” writes Brackett. “They influence everything from leadership effectiveness to building and maintaining complex relationships, from innovation to customer relations.”
An intriguing approach to identifying and relating to one’s emotions.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-21284-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
An erudite guide to the biblical world.
Revelations from the Old Testament.
“The Bible has no rivals when it comes to the art of omission, of not saying what everyone would like to know,” observes Calasso (1941-2021), the acclaimed Italian publisher, translator, and explorer of myth, gods, and sacred ritual. In this probing inquiry into biblical mysteries, the author meditates on the complexities and contradictions of key events and figures. He examines the “enigmatic nature” of original sin in Genesis, an anomaly occurring in no other creation myth; God’s mandate of circumcision for all Jewish men; and theomorphism in the form of Adam: a man created in the image of the god who made him. Among the individuals Calasso attends to in an abundantly populated volume are Saul, the first king of Israel; the handsome shepherd David, his successor; David’s son Solomon, whose relatively peaceful reign allowed him “to look at the world and study it”; Moses, steeped in “law and vengeance,” who incited the slaughter of firstborn sons; and powerful women, including the Queen of Sheba (“very beautiful and probably a witch”), Jezebel, and the “prophetess” Miriam, Moses’ sister. Raging throughout is Yahweh, a vengeful God who demands unquestioned obedience to his commandments. “Yahweh was a god who wanted to defeat other gods,” Calasso writes. “I am a jealous God,” Yahweh proclaims, “who punishes the children for the sins of their fathers, as far as the third and fourth generations.” Conflicts seemed endless: During the reigns of Saul and David, “war was constant, war without and war within.” Terse exchanges between David and Yahweh were, above all, “military decisions.” David’s 40-year reign was “harrowing and glorious,” marked by recurring battles with the Philistines. Calasso makes palpable schisms and rivalries, persecutions and retributions, holocausts and sacrifices as tribal groups battled one another to form “a single entity”—the people of Israel.
An erudite guide to the biblical world.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-374-60189-8
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
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