Friday, September 11, 2009

NutureShock Blog Tour


NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

Publication Date: September 3, 2009
Publisher: Twelve
ISBN: 978-0-446-50412-6
Price: $24.99
Pages: 352

Book 1 of 55 for the Countdown Challenge

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Despite having four kids, I haven't read very many parenting books. But when I got a chance to participate in this blog tour, I jumped at the chance. This seemed like a different kind of parenting book, and I was not disappointed.

This book addresses common beliefs or practices of modern-day parenting and then proves through research how we have been getting it wrong. While the book is very readable, everything in it is completely backed up by detailed notes, sources and references. Some of the topics include:
  • Why praising your child's intelligence might not be such a good thing
  • How less sleep is radically affecting young children today
  • Why we need to talk about race and skin color with young kids
  • Why kids lie and how we can effectively address lying
  • How testing in the early school years is not successful at identifying the gifted
  • Why arguing with a teenager may not be such a bad thing
  • Why siblings really fight
  • Better ways to encourage toddlers to talk
Each chapter tackles a different area of current childhood development research. Some of the information was not new to me. Some parts made me feel vindicated in some of my personally-held, but unpopular, parenting beliefs. Some things made me stop and think about ways I could do better with my own kids. And some things I flat out didn't agree with at all.

This book made me think, and whether I agreed with it or not, I found reading it to be a very worthwhile endeavor. I do wish there had been a little more overall cohesion to the book, but I definitely recommend this for all parents and teachers.

On a personal note, I have to tell you that my three-year old was very disturbed by the crack in the egg on the front cover. She said, "Uh-oh Mommy! Your book is broken!"



This is the last day of this blog tour. Please visit these other stops:
Thanks to Anna at Hachette for the opportunity to participate in this tour!

Source: Publisher

5 comments:

bermudaonion said...

This book sounds interesting. I do think we're getting some things wrong these days - like giving every child a trophy just for participating in a sport. After a while, the trophies become meaningless.

Tricia said...

You are right. I think the trophy example was even mentioned in the first chapter!

Corinne said...

I totally want to read this and my library doesn't have it yet!! Thanks for bringing it to my attention :)

morninglight mama said...

Hey there- Corinne sent me over after I posted on FB about the author's cover story in Newsweek. I'm so intrigued by this book, and it's gone on my must read list!

Thanks for the review!

Booklogged said...

I am going over to order a copy right now. My little granddaughter has been getting carried away with lying lately. I'd like to read what suggestions they have on how to handle it.

Actually, I'm interested in some of their scientific studies, too.