If Wiseman was bold in her bestselling Queen Bees & Wannabes
by telling the truth about entitled girls and their excesses, she's even more daring here. The subject this time is parents, and the phrase "we have met the enemy and he is us" may be a little too true for comfort. As cofounder of the Empower Program, which teaches kids to stop violence, Wiseman works with more than 10,000 children annually; she knows her territory. She explains that she wants to help parents navigate "the unspoken rules of Perfect Parent World" so they can find their own "happy medium between overprotective parenting and frightened passivity." While she's used to seeing through most adolescent subterfuges, she's worked with enough parents to know their evil sides, too—how they curse out school counselors, threaten to sue principals, exclude other parents at meetings and one-up other parents over their kids' college plans. Wiseman wants to show people how to behave better; she even includes sample scripts for difficult situations. Her bottom line: parents have to model good behavior if they want to end up with good kids. And since we all live in the same communities, good kids are in everyone's best interest. (Mar.)
