Parenting Boys

A story of thrill-seeking teens, of hope and love, freedom and failure, Kickflip Boys reveals a sport and a community that have become a refuge for adolescent boys who don’t fit in. Ultimately, it’s the survival story of a loving modern American family, of acceptance, forgiveness, and letting go.

Writing test scores indicate that boys have fallen far behind girls across the grades. In general, boys don't enjoy writing as much as girls. What's wrong? How can we do a better of job of creating "boy-friendly" classrooms so their voices can be heard?

Seahawks star running back Curt Warner and his wife, Ana, were prominent figures in Seattle in the early 1990s. When they dropped from the public eye after Curt’s retirement, everyone assumed it was for a simpler life. But the reality behind their seclusion was a secret they hid from even their closest friends: their twins, Austin and Christian, had been diagnosed with severe autism. What followed was a painful struggle to hold their family and their marriage together in a home filled with chaos, emotional exhaustion, and constant fear for the safety of their unpredictable but beloved boys.

This audiobook tells the true story of a family's pain as several harrowing events unfold. A grandmother so selfish she lost everything over one man's sick pleasure. A father who will stop at nothing to keep his own dark secrets from getting out. The loving mother so broke down in life she questions her own sanity. The cries that could not be heard. The beatings that could not be stopped. The teachers who got it all wrong. The twisted friend. The beast that none stopped.

In What We Do For Love, Ilene Beckermen tells her funny, sometimes heartbreaking story that every woman who’s ever searched for love will recognize. Poignant and heartwarming, My Boyfriend's Back captures the love story of former high school sweethearts Ed Oster and Donna Hanover.

It's easy to imagine how you'd raise a boy - all the golf outings, lawnmower lessons, and Little League championships you'd attend - but playing dad to a little princess may take some education. In Oh Boy, You're Having a Girl, Brian, a father of three girls, shares his tactics for surviving this new and glittery world. From baby dolls and bedtime rituals to potty training and dance recitals, he leads you through all the trials and tribulations you'll face as you're raising your daughter.

For a young American boy in the 1950s, Fontainebleau was a sight both strange and majestic, home to a continual series of adventures: a different language to learn, weekend visits to nearby Paris, family road trips to Spain and Italy. Then there was the château itself: a sprawling palace once the residence of kings, its grounds the perfect place to play hide-and-seek. The curiosities of the small town left such an impression on him that 30 years later, Thad Carhart returned to France with his wife to raise their two children.

Desperate to alleviate her son's constant rages and their crushing toll on the family, Donnie Kanter Winokur comes up with an innovative, untested, four-pawed solution: a golden retriever service dog named Chancer. Chancer is specially trained to give Iyal a unique love he desperately needs. But in this true-life tale infused with moments of despair, tenderness, and humor, Chancer turns out to be what the entire family has needed to stay - and grow - together.

Okay, so he's not perfect, but does your man have potential? This book has the answers to the question: does your man have Prince Charming potential? Learn how to bring out the best of what he's got?or not! Women want men to change, but men want women to stay the same. If you've ever wondered how much "potential" a guy has, this book will help you discover whether he's a diamond in the rough or just a lump of coal. You'll learn why women endure the frustration of trying to transform a sub-par boyfriend.

Everyone knows that boys are falling behind in education. Largely left out of the discussion are parents of boys, who are most aware that their bright, eager sons hit an invisible wall somewhere near fourth grade, after which they become disengaged, discouraged, and disaffected. There are dozens of books on underachieving boys, but most parents brave enough to lift one off the shelf are instantly intimidated by the footnotes, graphs, case studies, and academic-speak addressed almost entirely to educators.

In Mother to Son, Jasmine Holmes shares a series of powerful letters to her young son. These are about her journey as an African American Christian and what she wants her son to know as he grows and approaches the world as a Black man. Holmes deals head-on with issues ranging from discipleship and marriage to biblical justice. She invites us to listen as she reminds Wynn that his identity is firmly planted in the person and work of Jesus Christ, even when the topic is one as emotionally charged as race in America.

Dear Diary Boy is an intensely personal, heartwarming, and heartbreaking chronicle of one mother and child's experience in a prestigious private Tokyo school. It's a tale that will resonate with all parents as we try to answer the age-old questions of how best to educate our children and what, truly, is in their best interests versus what is in our own.

If we are living in the era of Helicopter Parents and No Child Left Behind, then my seventies upbringing can easily be labeled as the era of All Children Left Behind. Sure, there was Dr. Spock and his earnest pleas for greater nurturing, but my New Jersey neighborhood was more aligned with another doctor; Dr. Charles Darwin.

Top academic counselor Ana Homayoun has helped turn even the most disorganized, scattered, and unfocused boys into successful young people who consistently meet their personal and academic challenges. She does this by getting back to basics - starting with a simple fact: Most boys needs to be taught how to get organized, how to study, and - most important - how to visualize, embrace, and meet their own goals.

"Like most fathers, I'd dreamt of doing all sorts of things with my son. I had so many plans, but when I was told my son was autistic, those plans seemed more like a fantasy. Well, eight years after that dreadful diagnosis, I am writing this book to let every father know that your plans for you and your son can still be a reality. It's just the path that takes you there that has to be altered."

In this compelling book, listeners will explore our many kinds of "blind spots", from the physical to the interpersonal: how we get them, how to reveal them, and how to work with our newfound awareness. Drawing upon neuroscience, meditation research, true personal accounts, and more, The Blind Spot Effect invites us into this hidden world. What unfolds is both a learning journey and a practice guide to bring our own unseen dimensions to light, learn from them, and help others along the way.

When MaryAnne Howland's son was turning 13, she organized a "Black Mitzvah" rite of passage celebration for him. Max is one of the one-in-three children in America being raised without a father in the home. Among African Americans, that number is reported to be as high as 72 percent. To help fill the father-shaped hole in Max's life as he transitioned from boyhood to manhood, MaryAnne invited four men from different corners of her life - an engineer, a philanthropist, a publisher, and a financial planner - to become Max's mentors.

When Harry Saunders chose to use her nickname on a resume, she knew anyone reading it would assume she was a man. But that was fine by her - as long as it meant getting the job. She needed the benefits for her sick little boy, and no matter how much one of her bosses hated her for not being entirely honest, she wasn't going to back down and quit.

Best-selling author Tim Austin notes, "We live in a troubled world, where raising loving, responsible young men is a challenge." He takes a deep look at the important issues relevant to raising “rugged gentlemen” in a world where it is necessary to, sometimes, give them “permission to be tough".

Poignant and heartwarming, My Boyfriend's Back captures the love story of former high school sweethearts Ed Oster and Donna Hanover (journalist, actress, and former First Lady of the City of New York) who, more than 30 years after their breakup at Stanford, reconnected, rekindled their love, and married, becoming part of what experts are calling a "21st-century trend" in relationships.