My son is nine, and we are experiencing the golden years of childhood. He’s old enough to manage some things on his own, but hasn’t reached the tumult of adolescence. Sure, we have ups and downs, but as a parent, I’m really enjoying this time. In a few short years, the challenges will mount, and…
Category Archives: Parenting
The Art of Roughhousing: Kirkus Reviews Blog
When my first child was a baby, old enough to have full head-control and sit up independently, we were eating at an informal restaurant with some family members. One person was gently bouncing my son up into the air, much to his delight, while we waited for our food. A nearby patron began to loudly…
Planting Dandelions
I have to admit that I’m a sucker for parenting memoirs, preferring the kinds that tell it like it is. Feeling a connection with an author becomes inevitable when she ventures into extremely personal territory and hits eerily close to home. In her new memoir, Planting Dandelions: Field Notes from a Semi-Domesticated Life, Kyran Pittman…
Too Small to Be Big, Review and Giveaway
We don’t need to see statistics to know that childhood obesity is on the rise. From pudgy preschoolers to overweight tweens and teens, it’s pretty obvious. In fact, when I recently saw a large group of high schoolers at an event, I was a little shocked to see that almost none of them were a…
Paris, Baby! Review and Giveaway
I love memoir. I especially love memoir that transports me to a different time or place. In Kirsten Lobe’s memoir Paris, Baby! she combines the familiar — a first pregnancy and baby — with the completely exotic — life as an expat American living in Paris. The book is candid, funny, and sweet. I loved…
On Reading: Best Books for Boys
Don’t you just love that there’s a book called Best Books for Boys: How to Engage Boys in Reading in Ways That Will Change Their Lives. Just reading Pam Allyn’s title and subtitle inspires and encourages me. Pam Allyn has spent years encouraging kids to read. In her writing, we can hear a special heart…
On Reading: Books that Inspired Us as Mothers
I well remember that fateful day when I stared in disbelief at the home pregnancy test, the small pink line indicating a positive result. Although I had always known I wanted to have kids, although I’d been married 4 years at that point, I was still petrified. Surely I wasn’t really grown-up enough to be…
Mother’s Day Essays and Poems: A Kirkus Blog Review
Mother’s Day is this weekend, and I recently listened to two audiobooks, both from Macmillan Audio, that fit in well with the day. If you’re looking for a last-minute gift for a special mom in your life, here are two good options. “Motherhood is a kaleidoscopic subject.” Liane Hansen begins the foreword of A Mother’s…
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