Here are 100 books that Growing Up Shared fans have personally recommended if you like
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I’ve researched children’s digital lives since the internet first arrived in many people’s homes. Recently, I noticed parents’ concerns weren’t listened to – mostly, researchers interview parents to find out about their children rather than about parents themselves. Worse, policymakers often make decisions that affect parents without consulting them. So, in Parenting for a Digital Future we focused on parents, following my previous books on Children and the Internet and The Class: Living and Learning in the Digital Age. As a professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, I love that moment of knocking on a family’s door, and am always curious to see what I will find!
Media producers, digital designers, educators, child psychologists – professionals with different kinds of expertise and experience have different insights to offer.
I find it fascinating how these insights converge in this book on a vision of childhood that I can really support – children are seen as active agents making sense of their digital world, but also in need of thoughtful mentoring and guidance from parents, educators, and media producers.
Unlike some books which forget that media are not just tech but also content, this book really engages with the kinds of cultural representations that now populate children’s lives and imaginations. Of course there are differences between the authors, so this book offers plenty of food for thought to the reader.
All the essays are short, so you can get the gist of an argument and further reading in just a few pages – and each one has something new…
Exploring Key Issues in Early Childhood and Technology offers early childhood allies, both in the classroom and out, a cutting-edge overview of the most important topics related to technology and media use in the early years.
In this powerful resource, international experts share their wealth of experience and unpack complex issues into a collection of accessibly written essays. This text is specifically geared towards practitioners looking for actionable information on screen time, cybersafety, makerspaces, coding, computational thinking, STEM, AI and other core issues related to technology and young children in educational settings. Influential thought leaders draw on their own experiences…
I’ve researched children’s digital lives since the internet first arrived in many people’s homes. Recently, I noticed parents’ concerns weren’t listened to – mostly, researchers interview parents to find out about their children rather than about parents themselves. Worse, policymakers often make decisions that affect parents without consulting them. So, in Parenting for a Digital Future we focused on parents, following my previous books on Children and the Internet and The Class: Living and Learning in the Digital Age. As a professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, I love that moment of knocking on a family’s door, and am always curious to see what I will find!
As a researcher, I’m always looking out for fresh ways to approach familiar problems.
Three problems really bother me. One is the idea of reducing all the different types of media, and all the different ways families use media, to a simplistic formula – screen time. As if we could just measure screen time, reduce it by turning parents into screen time police, and thereby solve the problems of our digital age.
Another is the idea of seeing parents as having all the power and children as willful or ignorant or naughty and so needing to be controlled. As if families weren’t trying to be more democratic and as if parents had nothing to learn from their children. The third is the idea that families have got to work all this out on their own, as if digital innovators and the wider society weren’t in some ways part of the…
Children and Families in the Digital Age offers a fresh, nuanced, and empirically-based perspective on how families are using digital media to enhance learning, routines, and relationships. This powerful edited collection contributes to a growing body of work suggesting the importance of understanding how the consequences of digital media use are shaped by family culture, values, practices, and the larger social and economic contexts of families' lives. Chapters offer case studies, real-life examples, and analyses of large-scale national survey data, and provide insights into previously unexplored topics such as the role of siblings in shaping the home media ecology.
I’ve researched children’s digital lives since the internet first arrived in many people’s homes. Recently, I noticed parents’ concerns weren’t listened to – mostly, researchers interview parents to find out about their children rather than about parents themselves. Worse, policymakers often make decisions that affect parents without consulting them. So, in Parenting for a Digital Future we focused on parents, following my previous books on Children and the Internet and The Class: Living and Learning in the Digital Age. As a professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, I love that moment of knocking on a family’s door, and am always curious to see what I will find!
I love how balanced and practical this book is, full of suggestions for parents to try out.
Yet at the same time, it’s thoroughly grounded in independent research. Crucially, it steers clear of moral panics about how tech is making everything worse and, instead, builds on tried and tested insights from evidence. This combination is because it’s written by an Oxford University professor and a parenting counsellor.
It’s also full of parents’ experiences – as I try to do in my own work, the book reminds us how incredibly diverse families are. So, there are no ‘one size fits all’ solutions – but after reading it, I felt there’s plenty I and other parents can do to support children growing up in a digital world. And that’s very encouraging!
Children today are digital natives, growing up in an age where social media and online communication is the norm. This book is an indispensable guide for parents who may feel they are struggling to keep up, addressing the issues that young people and their families face in the world of modern technology. Suzie Hayman, a parenting counsellor, and John Coleman, a distinguished psychologist, use their combined expertise to explore the challenges and possibilities of being constantly connected, helping parents to make choices about how they communicate, set boundaries and establish rules.
Using real-world examples and solid psychological theory, the book…
I’ve researched children’s digital lives since the internet first arrived in many people’s homes. Recently, I noticed parents’ concerns weren’t listened to – mostly, researchers interview parents to find out about their children rather than about parents themselves. Worse, policymakers often make decisions that affect parents without consulting them. So, in Parenting for a Digital Future we focused on parents, following my previous books on Children and the Internet and The Class: Living and Learning in the Digital Age. As a professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, I love that moment of knocking on a family’s door, and am always curious to see what I will find!
This book was published ten years ago, and it’s as fresh and relevant as ever. I’ve chosen to highlight it here because, honestly, it’s the classic book that catalyzed many researchers into properly listening to young people and really respecting their views.
I learned a lot from danah boyd’s fieldwork about how to put effort into gaining teens’ trust, avoiding adult assumptions, and properly listening to what teens had to say. The teens in this book are often troubled, struggling with mental health problems and difficult life circumstances – but it's not their fault, they are facing so many real-world problems – poverty, family breakdown, racism, etc.
As a result, teens turn to technology for support, privacy, intimacy, and belonging. But in key ways, technology can also make things worse. I found this book truly thought-provoking.
"boyd's new book is layered and smart . . . It's Complicated will update your mind."-Alissa Quart, New York Times Book Review
"A fascinating, well-researched and (mostly) reassuring look at how today's tech-savvy teenagers are using social media."-People
"The briefest possible summary? The kids are all right, but society isn't."-Andrew Leonard, Salon
What is new about how teenagers communicate through services such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram? Do social media affect the quality of teens' lives? In this eye-opening book, youth culture and technology expert danah boyd uncovers some of the major myths regarding teens' use of social media. She…
I’m a Rutgers professor of psychology and a body image scientist. Growing up, I was a dancer and learned to be dissatisfied with my body at a young age. These concerns inhabited so much mental space during my adolescence that I ultimately began to study these issues in college as a way to better understand myself and others who had similar experiences. I’ve been doing research on body image and eating behaviors for over 25 years now and write books about these topics to help other kids and adults who may be struggling with these issues. Can you imagine what we could accomplish if we all felt comfortable in our own skin?
I love this book because the author, Molly Forbes, is so relatable. She’s a mom trying to figure out all of this confusing stuff about body image, health, and well-being for her own sake and her kids.
I found this book to be very accessible and easy to read yet packed with valuable information and even hands-on activities. Perhaps I liked this book best because it feels authentic and hopeful.
We are not born hating our bodies. Make sure your kids never do.
No parent wants their child to grow up with anything less than wholehearted confidence in themselves. Sadly research shows that children as young as five are saying they need to 'go on a diet' and over half of 11 to 16-year-olds regularly worry about the way they look. Campaigner and mum-of-two-girls Molly Forbes is here to help.
In Body Happy Kids, Molly draws on her own experience and a range of experts to provide parents with a much-needed antidote to the confusing health advice that bombards us…
Throughout my teen years, I heard the narrative that mothers are powerless doormats who should be doing something better with their lives. But in time, I realized motherhood is a position of profound power. And I knew that the prevailing messaging on motherhood needed to change! As an author, speaker, and policy advisor for an NGO at the United Nations, I have spent the past 10 years inspiring women to embrace their potential—including their irreplaceable roles as mothers. I have a degree in English, but my finest education came from raising my four college-age daughters and my one young son. Mothers are miraculous!
This is the most impactful book on motherhood I’ve ever read. It is filled with compelling data supporting what most people already know: Moms are important to their children. The book opened my eyes to WHY mothers are crucial to the early cognitive, emotional, and social development of their babies and how a mother’s impact can last a lifetime.
Erica Komisar is a rockstar in her field with over 25 years in private practice and has a wealth of wisdom to share about the most important job in the world: Mom. I think this is an ideal baby shower gift, but even old moms can benefit from reading it. In my opinion, no mom should face motherhood without this book in her back pocket!
A powerful look at the importance of a mother’s presence in the first years of life
**Featured in The Wall Street Journal, and seen on Good Morning America, Fox & Friends, and CBS New York**
In this important and empowering book, veteran psychoanalyst Erica Komisar explains why a mother's emotional and physical presence in her child's life--especially during the first three years--gives the child a greater chance of growing up emotionally healthy, happy, secure, and resilient.
In other words, when it comes to connecting with your baby or toddler, more is more.
Compassionate and balanced, and focusing on the emotional…
So here’s the deal. I’m old enough to receive the senior discount every Tuesday at Lunardi’s Market, and I believe that qualifies me to write what I really think, no sugarcoating or banal reiterations. I host an extraordinary blog (according to my mother) with the coolest name, Living in the Gap. I have a book that came out this year, Grow Damn It, and when you calm down, you can order a dozen or so copies on Amazon! Other interesting facts. I’m tall, I blame the Neanderthals, but the important thing is I have an insatiable passion for writing. Come find me. I think we’re supposed to be best friends.
Unforgettable memoir by Anna Quindlen that celebrates and explores the process of aging.
Quindlen writes about how we change as we age. We’re kinder, more thoughtful, sometimes wiser, and willing to live at a pace that allows us to smell the roses. This book honestly tackles a range of subjects, from marriage, girlfriends, parenting, faith, grief, and so much more.
Quindlen shares her personal stories to illuminate her ideas helping us to discover a life that can be both satisfying and joyful. After reading this book, I decided to write my memoir.
INCLUDING AN EXCLUSIVE CONVERSATION BETWEEN MERYL STREEP AND ANNA QUINDLEN
“[Quindlen] serves up generous portions of her wise, commonsensical, irresistibly quotable take on life. . . . What Nora Ephron does for body image and Anne Lamott for spiritual neuroses, Quindlen achieves on the home front.”—NPR
In this irresistible memoir, Anna Quindlen writes about a woman’s life, from childhood memories to manic motherhood to middle age, using the events of her life to illuminate ours. Considering—and celebrating—everything from marriage, girlfriends, our mothers, parenting, faith, loss, to all the stuff in our closets, and more, Quindlen says for us here what…
I’ve always been drawn to babies and toddlers and fascinated by the development that happens in the early years of life. This fascination led me to become a teacher, parent, and emotional development expert with a master's degree in early childhood education. Eventually, my passion for this field led me to co-create the Collaborative Emotion Processing method and research it nationwide. The research results were compelling, and so began my mission to share it with the world.
I loved this book because it tackled the idea of shame and blame in parenthood. It also helped me to release fear-based parenting. So much of discipline and punishment in parenthood is related to fear.
Dr. Shefali challenged me to reframe my ideas about raising a conscious, emotionally well child.
Instead of being merely the receiver of the parents' psychological and spiritual legacy, children function as ushers of the parents' development. Parents unwittingly pass on an inheritance of psychological pain and emotional shallowness. To handle the behavior that results, traditional books on parenting abound with clever techniques for control and quick fixes for dysfunction. In Dr. Shefali Tsabary's conscious approach to parenting, however, children serve as mirrors of their parents' forgotten self. Those willing to look in the mirror have an opportunity to establish a relationship with their own inner state of wholeness. Once they find their way back to…
I’m a child psychologist, mother of three, and parenting writer who reads way too much parenting content. My personal mission is to be a voice of science-based, compassionate, and realistic parenting guidance to counteract the pitfalls of modern parenting advice. As a psychologist, I know much of this advice lacks good science and even common sense. As a mother, I find a majority of parenting advice oppressive in its unrealistic expectations and a source of unnecessary guilt, shame, and feelings of failure—especially for mothers. I love highlighting the work of other parenting experts who share my mission: to empower and uplift parents with good information and authentic support.
I loved this book because Reber makes it all about the parent in service of an easier parenting experience. And she takes on what can be a highly stressful and isolating parenting experience – raising neurodivergent kids.
This book is for parents who feel like parenting experts don’t “get it.” I felt so understood and supported while also learning some fundamental ways to better care for myself while also understanding my children better.
It's time to say no to trying to fit square-peg kids into round holes, and yes to raising them from a place of acceptance and joy. A how-to, a manifesto, and a wise and reassuring companion for parents of neuroatypical children, who often feel that they have no place to turn, Differently Wired offers 18 paradigm-shifting ideas-what the author calls "tilts"-that will change everything, including how to Get Out of Isolation and Connect, how to Help Your Kids Embrace Self-Discovery, and how to Show Up and Live in the Present. And through theses "tilts," how to stay open, pay attention,…
Growing up in the South Wales Valleys during the 1970s and 80s, I witnessed firsthand the effects of multiple adversities on the lives of those around me. Life was difficult for many families in the area as they battled with poverty, ill health, and lack of opportunity. I watched many amazing, creative, and talented young people fail to realise their potential. This sparked a passion and a career for supportive intervention with families and young children. It is my aim to help equip the workforce to better understand and respond to childhood adversity, be trauma aware, advocate for children’s rights, and make a positive difference in the lives of children and young people.
I love that this book is written primarily for parents. It presents the idea that by “flicking the strengths switch” and focusing on children’s many strengths rather than highlighting their weaknesses, parents can enjoy a better relationship with their children, help them develop optimism and resilience, and help protect against anxiety and depression.
It encourages parents to look for the good, become strength spotters, and help children build on positive emotions. However, the book is very nuanced and rejects a simplistic understanding of simply building children’s self-esteem in favour of research-based practices to help children become the best version of themself, especially in tough circumstances.
The book is very readable and filled with practical examples and compelling storytelling. It shows how a small shift in parenting approach can yield strong and lasting benefits for children and for families as a whole.
Unlock your child's potential by helping them build their strengths.
As a strengths-based scientist for more than 20 years, Dr Lea Waters has witnessed first-hand how focusing on our children's strengths, rather than correcting their weaknesses, can help build resilience and optimism, and offer protection from depression and anxiety.
In this game-changing book, she argues that by throwing the 'strength switch' parents can encourage creativity, develop their children's self-esteem and energy, and enhance achievement - and she offers easy-to-follow steps to teach parents how.
With specific tips for interacting with your kids and your teens, The Strength Switch offers all…
