The Read-Aloud Handbook This is an amazing book and very helpful for anybody who wants to instill the love of reading in their kids. I have written more about this book in the Books’ category. To read more or find links to excerpts from this book on Jim Trelease’s website see my post about reading aloud and audiobooks.

The Read-Aloud Handbook is divided into two parts. The first provides information on the impacts of reading aloud to children and a lot of anecdotal evidence. The second half of the book contains a Treasury of Read-Alouds. Since these are books for adults to read aloud to children, Trelease provides the “listening level” for each book rather than the reading level. For example, a book listed as “Grades K-3” is a book children in grades K-3 should be able to understand and enjoy having read to them.

Here is an excerpt from the introduction:

This is not a book about teaching a child how to read; it’s about teaching a child to want to read. There’s an education adage that goes, “What we teach children to love and desire will always outweigh what we make them learn.” The fact is that some children learn to read sooner than others, while some learn better than others. There is a difference. For the parent who thinks that sooner is better, who has an eighteen-month-old child barking at flash cards, my response is: sooner is not better. Are the dinner guests who arrive an hour early better guests than those who arrive on time? Of course not. However, I am concerned about the child who needlessly arrives late and then struggles through years of pain with books.

How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk I must admit that I have had this book for years and still have trouble implementing all the methods in it. It is one of those parenting books that remind me whenever I go back to it that I am not doing everything I could and I still need to work on myself. However, it has helped me a lot and I think it is fantastic even if you don’t agree with everything in it (I find it especially hard to avoid threatening my kids—“if you don’t do your homework, you cannot …later”).

Siblings Without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Live Too Another great title with a lot of useful advice.

The 5 Love Languages of Children I have not read this book but it is on my list because of so many great reviews. Once I read it, I’ll give you an update.

For expectant parents or for parents with a baby (I read the books when my kids were little and found them helpful):  The Happiest Baby on the Block

The Happiest Toddler on the Block: How to Eliminate Tantrums and Raise a Patient, Respectful, and Cooperative One- to Four-Year-Old

It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens

Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood

The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults