Books for parents & educators

  • Kindness Wins, by Galit Breen
    This book discusses social media and how we can best help our children manage their online life in a healthy and positive way.  It is an engaging and enjoyable book to read. Each chapter has a theme, and within that are some real life examples, other resources, things to discuss with your kids, and things to discuss with your peers.  I particularly like that it focuses on Instagram, which is fast becoming the go-to social media site for young people (and parents often don't know as much about this platform as they do about Facebook).  
  • Pink Brain Blue Brain: How small differences grow into troublesome gaps - and what we can do about it, by Lise Eliot
    This very readable book clearly sets what the research on brain-based sex difference indicates and offers suggestions about how we can erase the small gaps for our children instead of turning them into larger ones. 
    "Sex differences in the brain are sexy," Eliot writes. And so we tend to notice them everywhere. "But there's enormous danger," she says, in our exaggeration. It leads us to see gender, beginning at an early age, only in terms of what we expect to see, and to assume that sex differences are innate and immutable. We forget that the differences within each sex -- among girls and among boys -- are usually greater than the gaps between the two. Our assumptions "crystallize into children's self-perceptions and self-fulfilling prophecies."
  • Taking Charge of Your Fertility, by Toni Weschler 
    This is a comprehensive overview of women's health and an invaluable resource for learning about women's fertility.  It has been described as "one of the most influential books in women's health available today". It is a very user-friendly, informative “how-to” fertility book - excellent for women who are trying to achieve pregnancy, or avoid pregnancy.  The book has great illustrations to help clearly explain the fertility awareness method (FAM) of birth control. This is one of the books that I promote as "compulsory reading for every woman, and every man who knows a woman" (i.e. everyone!).
  • Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom, By Dr Christiane Northrup
    A qualified obstetrician, Northrup advocates for an holistic approach to reproductive health based on emotional, mental, spiritual, societal, as well as physical factors. She strongly believes in the healing power of women's own wisdom and explains how the systems of the body have an exquisite physical response to emotional and environmental stressors, which can contribute to health or illness. Health issues specific to the lives and bodies of women are examined, with a particular emphasis on childbirth and menopause. This is the second of the two books that I promote as "compulsory reading for every woman, and every man who knows a woman" (i.e. everyone!).
  • The Butterfly Effect, By Dannielle Miller
    This is a captivating book, offering a positive approach to raising girls. The challenges and pressures faced by girls and their parents are explained and backed up with research as well as Miller’s own extensive experience as an educator and founder of Enlighten Education. But far from adopting an ‘end of the world’ approach, Miller breaks down the different aspects of raising girls, and provides realistic solutions and advice. I wrote a full review of this book here. 
  • What Is Happening to Our Girls, By Maggie Hamilton
    Maggie Hamilton interviewed girls, teachers, school counsellors, psychologists, and law enforcement and medical personnel to get an insider’s view on what girls are experiencing at present from birth to the teenage years. Informed, revealed, compassionate and at times shocking, this is a book for parents and all those who want to better understand and support girls.