A calm, clear, and encouraging read for mothers who seek to optimize their children’s well-being.
This debut parenting book by a teacher and mother of three provides instructions on how to meet children’s needs and build a supportive family.
Bartow is a certified professional life coach, and she has gleaned many observations about parenting and child behavior from her years as an educator. She also worked to raise her own children to be happy, successful adults. In this book, she provides detailed insights into “how to be the mom your children truly need,” as the book’s subtitle promises. She presents them in the form of 12 chapters, each covering an emotional, mental, or spiritual gift that a mother can provide a child. For example, “The Gift of Intrinsic Motivation” discusses the importance of having children do tasks with the goal of doing their best rather than with the expectation of a reward. Bartow gives examples of her own daughter’s labors with difficult schoolwork and tells of the pride that the youngster had with its completion. Although the book specifically focuses on the role of mothers, it also offers reflections on how parents can collaborate, especially in a chapter titled “The Gift of a United Front.” The author explains her concepts simply and backs them up with examples from her own life—most often from her parenting but also from her time in the classroom. Memories of her own childhood, too, provide a window into a youngster’s perceptions and concerns. Overall, Bartow writes with a clear, deliberate voice that’s easy to follow. One of her key messages is the importance of being honest and direct with children in all circumstances—from preparing young tots for trips to the supermarket to discussing the topic of sex with adolescents. She also illustrates how children can learn valuable lessons when they’re allowed to have their own experiences and aren’t protected from challenges or natural consequences. However, Bartow distinguishes punishment, which she characterizes as a hurtful, vindictive response, from discipline, which she paints as a logical, appropriate action. The book also covers religious faith, urging mothers to allow their children to explore it even when their own beliefs may differ.
A calm, clear, and encouraging read for mothers who seek to optimize their children’s well-being.Pub Date: March 28, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4834-4735-3
Page Count: 238
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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