The Portable Pediatrician's Guide to Kids: Your Child's Physical and Behavioral Development from Age 5 to Age 12

Following up The Portable Pediatrician for Parents (which focused on birth to age five), Nathanson again proves that she knows kids inside out. Many of the usual concerns--new sibling, moving, making friends--are discussed along with a less widely addressed agenda of such issues as sexuality and sex play, cross-gender behavior, molestation and bullies. There's also a comprehensive examination of sports safety. The book's three sections cover three age ranges: five and six; seven and eight; and nine, 10 and 11 (""the land of the rolling eyeballs""). In each, the author describes physical and behavioral development with an uncanny ability to depict real-life situations and the peculiarities of each age (""fives want to be good; sixes want to be right""). Her outlook and advice are refreshingly candid: remain ""askable and tellable"" on the subject of sex; ""be there and be alert"" when your child is hospitalized; keep boys in groups ""active all the time, even in transit."" The section on older kids is particularly insightful and includes an explanation of why there is no cure for the ""complicated developmental phenomenon"" of a messy room. Appendixes present growth charts, immunization schedules, safety considerations (sports and other topics) and a glossary of medical terms applicable to 5-12-year-olds. In a lively and reassuring tone, neither perky nor pedantic, Nathanson answers the questions--and some of the prayers--of parents who have grown beyond the baby stage. (Aug.)