Rich in research findings, this frank how-it-was-with-me account is perfect for intellectually curious mothers-to-be.
A scientist with an eye for human interest takes the mystery out of pregnancy and first-time motherhood.
LoBue (co-editor: Handbook of Emotional Development, 2019), a professor of psychology and director of the Child Study Center at Rutgers University who writes “The Baby Scientist” column for Psychology Today, brings her expertise in child development and knack for translating scientific research into everyday language to an account that blends personal experience with solid information. Her story, which is especially pertinent for career women aware of the ticking of their biological clocks, begins with an introduction in which she chronicles her experience as a 33-year-old specialist in child psychology contemplating pregnancy. “As an expert in child development,” she writes, “I am intimately aware of the risks of having your first child when you’re well into your 30s, starting with problems conceiving and ending with the frightening possibility of developmental problems for the child.” What follows is written in real time, and while this would seem like a personal journal, it is much more. Surrounding sonograms of the author’s developing fetus are simple charts, diagrams, and pictures explaining heredity, fetal development, and differences in gender preferences. LoBue shares her discomforts, including weight gain and loss of sleep, and she enlightens readers about the sleep habits and learning abilities of the unborn. In her account of the nine months after birth, she includes photographs of her infant son, and she clearly shows stages of development, perception changes, emotional responses, and the beginnings of language. The author does not hide problems with breastfeeding or concerns over bouts of crying, but on the whole, her message is one of reassurance. The scope broadens over the months to include a discussion of separation anxiety and the pros and cons of child care options for working mothers.
Rich in research findings, this frank how-it-was-with-me account is perfect for intellectually curious mothers-to-be.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-19-086338-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
This autobiography might almost be said to supply the roots to Wright's famous novel, Native Son.
It is a grim record, disturbing, the story of how — in one boy's life — the seeds of hate and distrust and race riots were planted. Wright was born to poverty and hardship in the deep south; his father deserted his mother, and circumstances and illness drove the little family from place to place, from degradation to degradation. And always, there was the thread of fear and hate and suspicion and discrimination — of white set against black — of black set against Jew — of intolerance. Driven to deceit, to dishonesty, ambition thwarted, motives impugned, Wright struggled against the tide, put by a tiny sum to move on, finally got to Chicago, and there — still against odds — pulled himself up, acquired some education through reading, allied himself with the Communists — only to be thrust out for non-conformity — and wrote continually. The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.
Perhaps this will force home unpalatable facts of a submerged minority, a problem far from being faced.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1945
ISBN: 0061130249
Page Count: 450
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1945
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