House Parent

From within the hopelessness and terror of China's Cultural Revolution, Dai Sijie has fashioned a beguiling and unexpected story about the resilience of the human spirit, the wonder of romantic awakening, and the magical power of storytelling. "An unexpected miracle," raves the Los Angeles Times Book Review, "a delicate, and often hilarious, tale."

Switters is a contradiction for all seasons: an anarchist who works for the government, a pacifist who carries a gun, a vegetarian who sops up ham gravy, a cyberwhiz who hates computers, a robust bon vivant who can be as squeamish as any fop, a man who, though obsessed with the preservation of innocence, is aching to deflower his high-school-age stepsister (only to become equally enamored of a nun ten years his senior). Yet there is nothing remotely wishy-washy about Switters. He doesn't merely pack a pistol. He is a pistol.

One of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory, Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain is a masterpiece that is at once an enthralling adventure, a stirring love story, and a luminous evocation of a vanished American in all its savagery, solitude, and splendor.

In his groundbreaking best seller The Gift of Fear, Gavin de Becker showed millions of readers that, like every creature on earth, human beings can predict violent behavior. Now, in this exclusive audio presentation of Protecting the Gift, de Becker empowers parents to fully trust their own intuition when it comes to their children's safety. In this indispensable resource, de Becker provides keen insights into the behavior and strategies of predators. He offers practical new steps to enhance children's safety at every age level: specific questions parents can ask to effectively screen and evaluate babysitters, daycare services, schools, and doctors; a "Test of 12" safety skills children need before being alone in public; warning signs to help parents protect children from sexual abuse; and how to keep teenage girls and boys from unsafe situations with peers and adults. De Becker also shatters the myth that rules like "Never talk to strangers" will keep your children safe. By showing what danger really looks like - as opposed to what we might imagine it looks like - de Becker gives parents freedom from many common worries and unwarranted fears.

This is the first book of its kind that calls attention to an important fact: Parents can make a tremendous impact on their child through behavioral practices taught at home. Dr. Barbera has created a tool kit that any parent can use to help remediate - and in some cases eliminate - some symptoms of autism and other developmental delays in young children, even in as little as 15 minutes a day.

After getting a master’s degree in clinical psychology, Dasha Kiper became the live-in caregiver for a Holocaust survivor with Alzheimer’s disease. For a year, she endured the emotional strain of looking after a person whose condition disrupts the rules of time, order, and continuity. Inspired by her own experience and her work counseling caregivers in the subsequent decade, Kiper offers an entirely new way to understand the symbiotic relationship between patients and those tending to them.

Leading expert Dr Nick Fuller has outlined six principles that will allow you to create a research-based lifestyle plan for the whole family. By following them you will be able to help even the fussiest child establish a healthy relationship with food, exercise and sleep, ensuring they have a natural optimum body weight throughout their life, are full of energy and flourish.

Two new Appalachian stories from the author of the award winning Listening for the Crack of Dawn; an ideal introduction to contemporary storytelling for adults. Both stories are based upon real people. In the first, a disastrous birthday enables a child to learn more than an adult possibly could. In the second, two unusual people live their conviction that people are more important than things.

Mothers: everybody has one, and each has a story to tell. Every mother knows that good parenting can call for heroic measures. As these tales from ancient traditions show, most rise to the task and do the best they can. Whether mothers have starring or supporting roles in these stories, their actions are the ones on which the plots turn. Here are tales of gentle wisdom and fierce emotion, everyday chores, and unthinkable challenges.

The mother-daughter relationship sets the stage for our state of health and well-being for our entire lives. Because our mothers are our first and most powerful female role models, our most deeply ingrained beliefs about ourselves as women come from them. And our behavior in relationships, with food, with our children, with our mates, and with ourselves, is a reflection of those beliefs.

Have you ever wondered why celebrities look so rested in such a short time after giving birth? The answer: baby specialists like Helen Moon. A baby specialist and professional nanny for the past 25 years, Helen has worked closely with hundreds of families, including some of Hollywood's biggest stars. Helen knows that the first six weeks of a baby's life - when parents tend to be nervous, siblings are needy, and new babies need immediate and constant attention - has a huge impact on the entire family.

The only evidence-based, up-to-date fertility guide for queer people from an experienced health care provider, this is also the first to be transgender inclusive and body-positive. Here, queer prospective parents will find sound advice for navigating complex medical, social and financial decisions. Trusted fertility midwife Kristin Liam Kali walks you through the baby-making process.

With the increasing pressure to excel at parenting, work, and personal relationships, it's easy to feel stressed and dissatisfied. This targeted positive discipline guide gives parents the tools to parent effectively without sacrificing their well-being or giving up on their life goals. Instead of creating unachievable expectations, parents will learn how to play to their strengths at work and at home. Attitude is key - if you feel confident in your parenting abilities and at your job, your children are more likely to adopt an attitude of self-reliance and cooperation.

Even the Stars Look Lonesome is Maya Angelou talking of the things she cares about most. In her unique, spellbinding way, she recreates intimate personal experiences and gives us her wisdom on a wide variety of subjects. She tells us how a house can both hurt its occupants and heal them. She talks about Africa. She gives us a profile of Oprah. She enlightens us about age and sexuality.

Most parents understand that free, unstructured playtime is great for children’s development. What they may not know is that playful interaction with parents is also a powerful way for kids to cultivate healthy emotional development and resilience. Kids often want their parents to play with them, but many parents don’t know how to play or see it only as an (often boring) way to kill time. Playing with your kids doesn’t have to mean enrolling in countless parent-and-me classes or getting on all fours and making toy car sounds; the little daily moments together can make the most impact.

In rural North Carolina, in 1951, despite parental reassurances, a typhoid shot hurt. It hurt even more when the children saw who would be administering the shot: Miss Winnie, a large, dictatorial nurse who had been "especially built by the nursing school so she would never blow away in a hard wind".

When plucky single mother Leda Plett goes next door to retrieve her wandering pooch, she doesn’t expect to find a handsome stranger lounging about like he owns the place. She certainly doesn’t expect him to go all "white knight" about her deadbeat ex or her knees to go all wobbly at his sexy smile. Rodeo-star-turned-agent Eric Anders is used to managing people, and clearly the boots-and-sundress-wearing mouthy mama needs someone to manage her. He wants to help; her spirited spark and quick wit have nothing to do with it.

It took the coronavirus pandemic to open our eyes to the deplorable state of so many of the nation's long-term care homes: the inhumane conditions, overworked and underpaid staff, and lack of oversight. In this timely new book, esteemed health reporter André Picard reveals the full extent of the crisis in eldercare, and offers an urgently needed prescription to fix a broken system.

Marta Segrelles, psicóloga y autora de Abraza a la niña que fuiste, vuelve con un libro muy especial para sanar las heridas de la infancia que más huella dejan: las que están presentes en la relación con nuestra madre.

Renowned sociologist Janice Johnson Dias has devoted her life to nurturing and training girls to become changemakers - whether through her investment in her daughter Marley’s humanitarian projects or through her work with the GrassROOTS Community Foundation “SuperCamp” she cofounded for girls. In these unprecedented times, her work has never been more urgent, as parents find themselves asking: How do we teach girls to change the world?