Childcare Books

Along with a bit of memoir, Birkett Morris has provided tips and examples for ANY stay-at-home parent to use. In this age of video games, planned play dates, organized activities and often hectic lifestyles, this little tip book reminds Dads (and Moms) how to use imagination, free-style play and reading to connect with children. Some very nice Web sites are also listed to aid today's stay-at-home Dads to become excellent nurturers.

Rather boring. She says alot of what is common sense to most moms and there are no "secrets" to what mother nature gave us. I would not recommend it to friends or family. The one positive - its a really cheap book!

I read this book back-to-back with Babywise, and both books recommend the same EASY approach. The basics are worth following, but I found some of the specifics in the Baby Whisperer laughably hard to implement. Specifically, there are not enough hours in the day to do everything she says to do.

First, she recommends the mother nap from 2-5 every afternoon. If a breastfed baby eats every 2 1/2 to 3 hours, how is that possible? If a feeding takes 30-40 minutes, then active time takes another 30-45 minutes, and it takes 20 minutes to calm the baby for her nap (all her time estimates), the mother is simply not left with a three-hour block of time at any point in the day.

Second, her evening schedule leaves virtually no time for a parent to prepare and eat dinner (or any other activity, for that matter). She advocates two evening feedings, two hours apart, along with a daily bath and massage routine, which takes another 60 minutes (30 minutes for each activity), and then a "dream feed" when the baby is asleep before the parents retire for the night. Following the time estimates she gives, don't expect to eat until after 9 pm, and good luck trying to squeeze anything else into your evening.

If I had a dedicated maid, chef, and baby nurse, I could easily following the EASY plan. Without such a staff, however, I'm having to pick and choose what works with my six-week-old. Overall, I'm glad I read the book, but I could have done without the anxiety caused by trying to follow the full approach.

This book was a HUGE help to me with my newborn. It was full of helpful hints and guidelines. Though some of Tracy Hogg's suggestions didn't work for my little darling, she still provided a good prospective and loving ways to respond. Tracy's E.A.S.Y. routine is a complete life saver! It worked great for us; and we are still in this routine a year later! Our daughter thrives on EASY and is a well-rested, happy little girl. I buy this book for all of my first time mommy friends!

i read this book on a car ride home from New Hampshire and I love llove love it. our daughter is a a little older than the ones she is dealing with, (not in the 03 month stage) but it's all applicable.
i love her middle of the road approach, i love the basic routine information.. I think it's all fabulous. Today is day one of our EASY attempts, and it's working like a charm.
There is a lot of insight here in this little book. It's something I wish i had when i was pregant, or when our little one was just born. But it's fabulous.

in response to the post about bad breast feeding advice... I think she spends so much time making the case for formula because there is such an innundation of information on on breast feeding. I didn't feel like she wasn't making her argument. On the contrary, i felt she was taking into consideration that the reader was already semi educated about breast feeding. What she did say about breast feeding I think was important to say - that it has to be learned, that it has to be a mother's choice, that it is a good thing to do. BUT that formula is good too, and that the guilt trip that comes with every mother who chooses to formula feed over breast feeding needs to stop NOW.

She also doesn't come across and say Attachment parenting is bad. She doesn't. But the goal in the book is to raise an independent child. A child that can fall asleep on their own. A child that can get to understand te routine in the day, their role in the family.
I know for me, we were doing semi demand feeding, but then nothing else got done. The baby HAD to be held so much of the time. and as much as I love it, practically, it's not going to work. So she shows you (or she showed me) how to work routine in to the mix with the EASY method, how to play, how to take care of yourself and how to get your baby to sleep.

So I Love this book. I would recommend it to anyone. I think it's worth the read and is full of great advice.

Absolutely wonderful book! Every new Mom should read this, gives you so much confidence in taking care of your new baby. Helps you to understand & read your babies cues, body language, identify cries etc. Has so much teaching and my baby did everything just as she said he would. Also helps you to get them to sleep through the night, my baby slept through the night at 8 weeks. We recommend this book to everyone we know!

The book had interesting subject matter, but to be honest, I think the writing had some problems. It had quite a few oddly constructed, awkward sentences, nd typos. It sort of seemed like a "first book," like Quart could polish her writing a bit more. oSome parts also seemed a little bit meandering, lacking a cohesive plan. I would read a chapter, and think, "What did this have to do with the previous chapter?" I'd recommend reading "No Logo" by Naomi Klein instead of this. No Logo is longer and covers a lot more subject matter, but I think it's also better written.

"Branded" definitely supplies a great deal of information, but Quart seems to fail in synthesizing this information for the reader. Granted, it is fairly easy to understand the points she is trying to make, but she fails to coherently state these points in a memorable fashion. The book is filled with endless examples and statistics, but it is lacking in overal argumentation. She seems to allow the facts and the stats to speak for themselves, without using them to prove specific points. The book is an endless supply of premises, with very few conclusions.

However, I did learn much from this book, and the chapter on teenage plastic surgery was quite shocking and disturbing to me.

Overall, I do recommend this book, if you are able to draw your own conclusions from the facts provided.

Alissa Quart tackles an admirable and potentially fascinating subject in Branded, yet I was left feeling a bit disappointed after finishing the book. I personally found her writing style a bit stilted, and it seems like there is a lot of information and many observations, yet not so much in-depth analysis. The book itself is not extremely long, so there is definitely room for more expansion. There are countless examples of teen branding in movies, fashion, magazines, advertisements, etc., and the author touches on all of these and more, but somehow the book felt more like a bombardment of information than a nuanced analysis. I had pretty high expectations when I read this book (especially from the many positive editorial reviews available), but it was ultimately not as satisfying an experience as I would have hoped.

The premise of this book seemed very appealing to me. I have always been very opinionated about "Branding" teenagers, and while in high school I refused to wear well known brand-name clothes.
However, once I got into actually reading the book, I was very dissapointed. Quart seemed, at least to me, to merely skim the surface of the problem, filling the pages with statistics and endless lists of numbers but not really pulling much meaning out of any of it.
It also seemed to me that she focused most of her attention on the "rich" kids. I feel that a comparison between priviledged and average teenagers, even severely underpriviledged teens, would have made the book much more interesting. It got especially frustration for me when I reached the chapter titled "Logo U" because (my being fresh out of highschool) I felt that she was exaggerating, or else obviously not expanding her interviews for children NOT from wealthy families. I never took an SAT course, never bought an expensive SAT book but still did perfectly well on my SATs, and got into several excellent colleges.
I understand that the point she was trying to make was about teens getting the "Logo U"s in their minds and refusing to be denied access to them, but I feel the endless droning about SATs offered nothing to feed that point and just made me try to compare the information to my own experience, with little, if any, success.
I apologize for my review being so unorganized. I am no professional writer myself.

Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers by Alissa Quart is a quick and fascinating read on the current and constructed intersections between young people, the media and popular culture, corporate agencies, and consumer culture.

What struck me most about Quart's analysis is how RELEVANT it is. Unlike many books published today, the research, reference, and anecdotal material in Branded (published in 2003) is very recent and does not rely too much, or at all really, on the 1990s.

Two shortcomings of the book were the chapter on Self-Branding (I felt Quart could have done more with body piercing, for example) and the last few pages (her final analysis could have been stronger). Despite these weak spots, Quart clearly did her research.

Branded is an interesting and even fun read suitable for parents, teenagers, and educators alike. As a teacher myself, I will definitely refer to it in the future.

It seems to me this product is to get you to apply online for a subscription to research baby names. I wasn't impressed with it at all though the design and marketing of the book is quite nice. I would NOT recommend.

I love the theory behind this book AND there is some very useful information to be learned from these name reports. The low rating is based solely on the fact that the website (where you get the info) is rarely functional. Pretty much every time I use it it stops responding to my name requests which causes me to hit the button again. The next day I find I've used up some of the 100 reports they give you on duplicate name reports. Customer service does win points for crediting my reports back to me, but the service is slower than they promise. Today I signed on and for some reason cannot find the page where I would get a new name report. It's missing. I paid for my nine month membership... I think I should be able to use the site!

The book was exactly what I needed for a research paper I was working on and the service and speed to delivery I received was perfect. Amazon is great to work with, I never hesitate to place an order because I know the service is great.

Hi -

I own no less than 5 baby name books and this is the one I keep coming back to. It is sooooo important what you call your baby. I knew that I wanted a good name before I read the book, but now I know what makes a name good:

In my mind, the 2 most important factors you can learn about in this book are Fit and Goodwill (Uniqueness is also described in this book, but I sort of intuitively knew that one before). In a nutshell, think about fit with your family & your religion, maybe your race. Goodwill is really a bit like a "credit score" for the name ... it all makes more sense in the book, but it is an easy read I recommend this for every parent ... you can't afford to miss it.

Yes - I actually said must-"read" because in contrast to most other books, this one actually has something to tell you, instead of just listing thousands of names (which you can get for free on the web, just Google "baby names").

Between Brazelton & Sears...I have all the child development advice a parent needs. I like the way Brazelton speaks to PARENTS and not child development experts...it's a very easy to read book with LOADS of great info!!! Very practical and yet has a loving approach.

Dr. Brazelton seems to be a gentle and loving advocate for children, and a doctor who understands them! I've read other books by him and enjoyed them very much, and been comforted by them, and was looking forward to this addition to his work. Unfortunately I agree with most of the other comments made here, that the format makes it much more difficult to find specific information. Because the authors use four composite children to describe many events and behaviors, it makes it difficult to tease out what is relevant. Our toddler is very similar in temperament to "Billy", but Billy supposedly grew up with an abusive father for a while and his mother has remarried -- nothing like our child's experience -- so what becomes irrelevant in the text and what can we still use? Largely told as lengthy narratives, it takes a long time to find useful ideas, but there is a good index that helps.

Despite the poor format, the ideas here are solid and helpful. Brazelton and Sparrow posit that as children reach milestones of development they backslide in other areas -- a usually peaceful child suddenly indulging in temper tantrums as they begin to conquer speech, for example.

We've found Brazelton's ideas helpful and spot-on, and there are unique events in this age range that make the book useful, though the clunky format keeps it from being invaluable.

I was eager to receive this book, since I found his first book essential to my understanding my daughter. He abandoned his style, which is detailed and explanatory, but applicable to every parent who reads. This book unfortunately follows four children to the exclusion of many other styles of child. I couldn't extrapolate any of the kids' personalities to my child, so it rendered the book useless for me.

I found my child over and over again on these beautifully written pages. Not in one of the four different children that the reader watches as they grow fduring the preschoo years, but in bits and pieces of all of them. I also loved the last chapter with all the different sections on challenges children have to deal with, especially since myh mother died and i was struggling with how to help my five year old son with this. This book really helped me and my son.

I highly recommend this book to every parent of children ages 3 to 6, and their teachers too. It is so much more respectful -of parents and children- then all those books that just tell parents what to do and talk about children as if they were simply meant to be programmed or controlled. I have found that with the help of this book, the new understanding I have of my four-year-old has led me to new ways of responding to her difficult behaviors. As a result, she is thriving, maturing before our eyes, and we're all happier for it.

This book is helpful if you read it in the beginning of pregnancy. It does a lot of cheerleading for you to get the most out of your employer for maternity leave but lacks specific instructions or advice. I was looking for ways to get the most out of the maternity leave I was already on and the book did not fit my needs.

A cross between the "Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy" and "The Rules," this guide is chock full of useful advice on how to handle your maternity leave from work. The author takes you step-by-step on all the essential steps of your maternity leave, from deciding how much time you will need off to making the transition back to work. You will learn a great deal about what steps you'll need to take before, during and after the birth of your child. Some important topics that are covered include how to negotiate time off, deciding between breast and bottle, making the transition to parenthood, how to find time for yourself, and finding quality childcare. Last, but not least, an entire chapter is dedicated to getting back to work. With the humor and wit of this book, you will feel like your best friend is with you during the entire time - giving you real-life wisdom and perspective that only a best friend could give you. A great gift for your pregnant friends that will be returning to work.

This book is good to read if you have not yet even thought about your maternity leave yet, like in your 2nd trimester of pregnancy. However, if you've already got some idea of what you're doing, or if you're already on leave (like myself), then it really doesn't have a lot of info for you. Really, the parts that I found most helpful in my situation were just emotional anecdotes about how crazy you feel at this time in your life - it's just nice to know someone else feels the way I do. The answer to the question the title seems to ask ("how do I make the most of my maternity leave?") is really given as "Don't expect to get anything accomplished on your leave. Just take care of that baby." Well, I think there are better suggestions out there than that. (If I may be so presumptuous, I'll add my own advice - Get the baby on a tight 3-4 hour feeding schedule. Keep a pen and paper by your chair where you feed the baby. While the baby's feeding, make a list of things you want to get done. That way you at least know when you can do things, and when you have that time, you know what needs to be done. It's working for me!)

The book does offer some facts about leaves of absence and ideas about alternative child care and work arrangements, but this was knowledge I already had, at my stage of the game. The title of the book should have been "The Best Friend's Guide to Maternity Leave: PLANNING FOR Your Precious Time at Home."

(Another note, and this is a pet peeve: the author takes literary license and writes with sentence fragments, which is fine in small doses. However, there are so many examples of this in the book that it makes it very distracting/awkward to read in some places....)

I have to give it five stars because I have to rate it something; but I can also justify all the bling, especially in context with the "poor" review of Aug. 2006 review, which also has merit.

Let me explain.

Dads Love Babies was one of three books I wrote in one summer, all as book packages, i.e., fixed, small budgets; and within a very, VERY short period of time. The original scope of the book was to have just stock photos and platitudes about fatherhood. Yuck.

I wanted to write a book, but not a syrupy one. Especially because I was not ghosting or "aka'ing" this one--my name would be on it.

So, I asked the project manager if I could interview real first-time dads instead. She agreed, and I found fathers willing to share stories of: the IVF process using donated eggs; a completely natural birth in a brand new "birthing center" complete with jacuzzi; a father whose car was towed and he had to take a bus to the hospital while his wife in labor; a father who was enraged by a callous doctor; a father who watched his wife's unexpected C-section; and another father whose laid back wife experienced a personality overhaul, putting the nursing staff on notice while in labor.

That the reviewer wishes to have "real" photos accompany the text, I take to mean the stories I assembled are compelling ones--compelling enough to spend the 0.65 for a used copy--and that the reviewer wanted to know these fathers even better after "going through" their experiences along with them.

The stories are intense--funny, scary, provocative--amd merit legitimate photos, which I did offer to use; but it was deemed by the publisher as "not an option", given the time constraints and legal implications.

The stock photos aren't evil, just not of the people whose faces, I hope, you are eager to see by the book's end.

If you are looking for a gift for a father-to-be, please don't get them this book. The photographs of fathers within this book aren't the men interviewed. The images are from stock photography - many images of men looking surprised at a baby. Give something meaningful instead.

This book was the greatest! I have sat many hours and looked at the pictures with my child. Can't wait too see what's next.? How about Mom's and their son's? Thanks Whitney for the pictures and warm heart moments....Keep on publishing...

I was severely displeased with this book. It was filled with bogus facts. Since a great deal of the info was inaccurate, I was hard pressed to trust any of it. Don't waste your time.

The information contained in this book is important to the care and nurturance of babies everwhere. We have embraced a host of chemicals to make our lives easier without understanding how they would impact our most precious assests, our children. This book carefully covers years of research and clearly documents the impact of a variety of chemicals in common use and their impact on pregnacy and early development. Translating this information into language that can be understood by an educated lay public presents quite a challenge to any author. Dr. Potter has done an excellent job in making a complex topic understandable. She doesn't advocate throwing the baby out with the bath water but had faith that humans are smart enough to find ways to accomplish the same goals with safe non-toxic substances. This is the challenge for all of us. Read it!

This book contains startling information that will help our children grow up healthy. I not only read the book myself, but passed it on to my daughter-in-laws to insure the healthiest grandchildren possible. They were releived to see that Dr. Potter not only warned them about toxins that could harm fetuses but what to do in the event that their toddlers had been exposed to any of the dangerous toxins she names. It is obvious from the extensive list of advisors in Dr. Potter's book that she has throughly researched her material. This book is a must read of every woman (and man) who are planning a family.

I was very disappointed with this book. Besides being totally distracted by the misspelled words and badly placed punctuation, I did not feel this was a "comprehensive" guide to finding a nanny. The author spends too much time recalling her own woes in finding and keeping good childcare, and not enough detailing the process for others. This author needs a good editor to re-write this book - there are some helpful nuggets of information buried in this poorly written and seemingly un-edited resource.

Hi, I'm Lisa, Ms. Grecos daughter. I designed the cover.(hope you like it!) Anyway, I think the book is good, it has hard facts and great tips to help you in getting the right nanny.

I have read other books on how to find childcare help. This book totally covered every aspect of this process for me. The author discusses things in her book that I never would have even thought of, some of which are so crucial in my search for the best childcare for my children. Before reading this extremely informative book, I thought I would ask some basic questions of my perspective nanny. After reading this book, I realized that all I had to do was open this book and follow what the author said. Ms. Greco has completely covered every detail for me.

I guess the title should have warned me: CHILDCARE feeding guide. This book is not for parents trying to feed their own kids healthy meals; it is geared toward a daycare setting. Most of the book centers on the logistics of meal preparation (e.g. sanitary food-handling) and common sense dietary information (eat lots of vegetables!). The few recipes that are included don't sound very appealing, plus they feed 8-12 children. If I were a daycare provider I might have given this book 5 stars, but it's not very helpful for a family.

This is an excellent book for Childcare Providers and parents. The book includes helpful information on child development and nutritional needs, educational and community resources on child nutrition as well as information on cooking for medium sized groups of children in the childcare setting. It's a helpful resource for the teacher, the parent asked to run the 'cooking corner' in the weekly programme as well as the parent at home. Meals can easily be adjusted to a family sized group (although 6 preschoolers eat about the same amount as a family of two adults and two children). It's also helpful in educating parents as to what they should expect from their child's school meal programme.

Its companion book, 'Teaching Children About Food' has great ideas for educating kids about food, cultural diversity, consumerism and where food comes from. It's also an excellent resource for the parent wishing to enrich the home kitchen as well as the teacher.