Why am I passionate about this?

Dr. Alice Sterling Honig, Professor Emerita of Child Development at Syracuse University, has spent over a half century working with and studying young children and creating numerous courses on how best to nurture early development. She has lectured widely in many countries and is the author of over 600 articles and chapters, and dozens of books on children and their caregivers. For nearly 40 summers she conducted an annual workshop  “Quality caregiving for infants and toddlers”. As a licensed  New York State psychologist, she has worked with families to ameliorate troubles in development and behavior. In Beijing, she was invited to give the “Dr. Alice Honig award” to a prominent Chinese pediatrician. She was awarded the Syracuse University Chancellor’s Citation for Academic Excellence.


I wrote

Secure Relationships: Nurturing Infant/Toddler Attachment in Early Care Settings

By Alice Sterling Honig,

Book cover of Secure Relationships: Nurturing Infant/Toddler Attachment in Early Care Settings

What is my book about?

Besides promoting healthful and safe experiences, the most important skills for parents and caregivers with young children are to give…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Oneness and Separateness: From Infant to Individual

Alice Sterling Honig Why did I love this book?

Vividly and poetically, Dr. Kaplan describes the emotional development of infants, including the choreography of each stage, through ‘holding on and letting go,’ and ’no-saying’ in the Separation / Individuation stage, to a psychological rebirth by the end of the toddler period. The writer carefully delineates the struggles of each baby toward this rebirth as a person who can handle the contradictions of his or her own feelings and those of the parents.

By Louise Kaplan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Oneness and Separateness as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Provides insight into the process by which an infant is separated from oneness with its mother, revealing the impact of this separation on human behavior throughout life.


Book cover of First Feelings: Milestones in the Emotional Development of Your Baby and Child

Alice Sterling Honig Why did I love this book?

Psychiatrist Dr., Greenspan illuminates in careful detail for parents six emotional milestones on an infant’s journey toward becoming a more self-regulated person with an organized sense of self. He provides positive and wise supports for parents to help each child along this pathway.

By Stanley I. Greenspan, Nancy Thorndike Greenspan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked First Feelings as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Greenspan outlines the six stages of emotional growth in early childhood and explores the ways in which they are communicated, emphasizing parental interaction as the key to a child's healthy, emotional maturation.


Book cover of Rethinking the Brain: New Insights into Early Development

Alice Sterling Honig Why did I love this book?

By three years of age, toddler brains are two and half times as active as those of adults and they stay that way for a decade. New brain imaging techniques reveal how powerful adult-child positive interactions are for enhancing brain development from birth. With large print, charming infant and toddler photos, and easy-to-read charts, this book should galvanize parents and program personnel to support care providers’ frequent, sensitive, and enriching social interactions from birth onward to enhance and optimize early brain development.

By Rima Shore,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Rethinking the Brain as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Book by Shore, Rima


Book cover of Childhood and Society

Alice Sterling Honig Why did I love this book?

Erikson’s classic theoretical rubric clearly describes the positive and negative poles of social development across the life span. For the earliest years, these poles are: Trust vs. Mistrust; Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt, and Initiative vs. Guilt. Freudian psychosexual theories of development and cross-cultural practices are also discussed.

By Erik H. Erikson,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Childhood and Society as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The original and vastly influential ideas of Erik H. Erikson underlie much of our understanding of human development. His insights into the interdependence of the individuals' growth and historical change, his now-famous concepts of identity, growth, and the life cycle, have changed the way we perceive ourselves and society. Widely read and cited, his works have won numerous awards including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

Combining the insights of clinical psychoanalysis with a new approach to cultural anthropology, Childhood and Society deals with the relationships between childhood training and cultural accomplishment, analyzing the infantile and the mature,…


Book cover of Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence

Alice Sterling Honig Why did I love this book?

Building on the brilliant work of Dr, Selma Fraiberg, who published Ghosts in the Nursery, detailing the consequences for impaired mother-infant relationships when the mother has had traumas in her past and then is “unable” to hear her own baby’s cries and need for nurturance, these authors go further. They provide specific details of how, during the first three years of life, insecure attachments, violence, abuse, terror, neglect, and prenatal ingestion of drugs, lead to impaired brain development, emotional disturbances, and later violent behaviors.

By Robin Karr-Morse, Meredith S Wiley,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Ghosts from the Nursery as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This new, revised edition incorporates significant advances in neurobiological research over the past decade, and includes a new introduction by Dr. Vincent J. Felitti, a leading researcher in the field. When Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence was published in 1997, it was lauded for providing scientific evidence that violence can originate in the womb and become entrenched in a child’s brain by preschool. The authors’ groundbreaking conclusions became even more relevant following the wave of school shootings across the nation including the tragedy at Columbine High School and the shocking subsequent shootings culminating most recently in…


Explore my book 😀

Secure Relationships: Nurturing Infant/Toddler Attachment in Early Care Settings

By Alice Sterling Honig,

Book cover of Secure Relationships: Nurturing Infant/Toddler Attachment in Early Care Settings

What is my book about?

Besides promoting healthful and safe experiences, the most important skills for parents and caregivers with young children are to give love and empathy to promote each child’s development of secure attachment and the second skill is building language powers and a passionate love of learning. This book provides specific tips to l empower child care providers to nurture secure attachments that result in children’s ability to become more cooperative, friendly, and loving.

Book cover of Oneness and Separateness: From Infant to Individual
Book cover of First Feelings: Milestones in the Emotional Development of Your Baby and Child
Book cover of Rethinking the Brain: New Insights into Early Development

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Raising an Entrepreneur: How to Help Your Children Achieve Their Dreams - 99 Stories from Families Who Did

By Margot Machol Bisnow,

Book cover of Raising an Entrepreneur: How to Help Your Children Achieve Their Dreams - 99 Stories from Families Who Did

Margot Machol Bisnow Author Of Raising an Entrepreneur: How to Help Your Children Achieve Their Dreams - 99 Stories from Families Who Did

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve become passionate about telling parents how to raise happy, resilient, creative, confident, entrepreneurial children who are doing something that gives them joy. So many young people are unhappy; parents don’t understand how to help. They think their children should follow their path, but that no longer works for many. For the last 10 years, I’ve been speaking to parent groups; I was an Advisor to EQ Generation, an after-school program that gives children the skills to succeed; on the Advisory Board of MUSE School, preparing young people with passion-based learning; and on the Board of Spark the Journey, mentoring low-income high school students to achieve college and career success. 

Margot's book list on learn how to raise confident children

What is my book about?

This book shakes longstanding assumptions of parenting.

Through 99 stories of people who are now changing the world, it shows how to raise creative, confident, resilient children who are filled with joy and purpose. Based on interviews with top entrepreneurs and their parents, it guides you to help your children identify their passion and figure out how they can spend their professional lives doing something they love. 

Parents' well-intentioned efforts often boomerang. By ignoring their children’s skills and interests, parents can inadvertently create pressure and anxiety, thwarting their children's ability to excel and find happiness. Too often, following your heart…

Raising an Entrepreneur: How to Help Your Children Achieve Their Dreams - 99 Stories from Families Who Did

By Margot Machol Bisnow,

What is this book about?

Learn how successful entrepreneurs were raised! Could your children start a company that disrupts existing industries? Or a non-profit that helps people around the world? Or follow their passion as an artist or activist? And most important, lead a life of joy and purpose, to be happy and fulfilled? Margot Machol Bisnow, mother of two thriving entrepreneurs, reveals how to raise creative, confident, resilient, fearless kids who achieve their dreams, through 99 stories of families who did it.

Read stories from 70 families who raised true game changers. See family photos of these thriving entrepreneurs, both when they were young…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in child psychology, toddlers, and infants?

Child Psychology 21 books
Toddlers 575 books
Infants 40 books