BookPikks

Burch recounts the tragic period in his childhood, beginning at age 8 when he is dropped off at an orphanage without explanation by his mother.  Burch is then bounced from institution to home to foster home and back to institutions for the next several years.  He never knows if or when he will see his family again, and his only comfort is an old stuffed animal taken from an orphanage.  Burch struggles to learn the rules in every new place that he visits, but the hardest rule to accept comes from a boy his own age:

“There ain’t no friends in here. . . It’s like this.  If you got a friend in here and they go away someplace, then you’re left by yourself, alone.  And if you keep making friends and they keep going away, then over and over again, you’re alone. . . It hurts.”

But in spite of this rule, and in spite of the abandonment and abuse that Burch repeatedly experiences, he eventually learns to love and receive love.

A simply delightful book by the author of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Alexander is one of the real-life sons of author Judith Viorst. When he, his wife and 3 children come to live with Viorst and her husband for 3 months while their home is being remodeled, Viorst siezes the opportunity to write about the experience of 3 generations living together. What results is a humorous accounting of how the family coped, mixed with some practical advice for adult family living together. I enjoyed this book (reading from Alexander’s perspective) but I think that grandparents who have had grown children and grandchildren come back to live (or even just to visit) will enjoy it even more.

This is a very practical book that provides solid advice for parents. Smalley uses numerous examples from his own experience as a dad to illustrate concepts such as: The major destroyer of families, using contracts and motivating your children. I will definitely be rereading this book as my son gets older.

I eagerly dove into this book expecting some magical answers to my tedious toddler troubles. How do I keep my son from: throwing food on the floor, running away when I call him, banging on the TV cabinet, playing with the computer keyboard, darting towards the street when I’ve just told him to stay by mommy. . . You get the idea. Apparently there are no easy magical solutions to these problems. Apparently I just have to stay consistent and stay persistent (my summary of Ezzo’s philosophy.) Speaking of tedious! Of course, I know there aren’t usually magical shortcuts to parenting, but I can still dream, right?

On Becoming Babywise still remains the most important book that I read to prepare me for the practical side of parenting a newborn. While I didn’t follow the book religiously, it was the only book that gave me a step-by-step plan to deal with this new creature called a baby. I’m the type of person that feels much better with a step-by-step plan. (A word of warning about Babywise though. Don’t read it too early into your pregnancy. The amount of work involved in caring for a newborn will just freak you out. Wait til the 8th month when you are just ready to get that baby out, no matter how much work it will be.) Toddlerwise, while giving some good advice on scheduling and discipline, wasn’t as earth-shattering for me. It’s probably because I’ve adopted many of the Babywise principles and have automatically been using them already. In summary, while Toddlerwise has some good things to say about caring for your toddler, I wouldn’t consider it a must-read. Does anyone have a great toddler-parenting book to recommend?

I had a hard time putting this book down. I can’t imagine the pain that a mother must experience when her teenage child runs away from home. Claire’s daughter, Mia, was abused by her dad when she was very young. As a teenager, these memories were too much for Mia to deal with, so she started self-mutilating, taking drugs, sleeping around, and finally ran away. Claire wasn’t willing to give up on her daughter, so she tracked her down, and forcibly enrolled her in a treatment program.

One of the most frightening aspects of the book was the real lack of control that Claire had over Mia. According to California law, Claire could not enroll Mia in a drug treatment program against her will, or even have Mia tested for STDS, even though Mia was only 15!

This is the kind of book that makes you hold your baby close, cherish the days when he’s home safe with you, and then offer him back to God, who can care for him so much better than I will ever be able to.