Springing the Parent Trap
Sally Lodge -- 4/10/00
Today's titles cover every stage of bringing up baby -- from colic to college
Arobust economy, demographics that have schools across the country bursting at the seams, parental anxiety about setting their offspring on the right track to succeed in a competitive world and concern about societal threats to their kids' well-being--these are some of the forces fueling today's sizzling market for books on childcare and parenting. No fewer than 40 publishers responded to PW's call for information on recent and forthcoming titles in this category. A review of their submissions and talks with those involved in the creation, editing, marketing and selling of such books uncovered some trends and topics that appear to be driving this genre at the start of this millennium, when--can it be?--grandchildren of baby boomers are becoming parents.
At Robins Lane Press, a newly launched division of Gryphon House devoted exclusively to books for parents, publisher Justin Rood credits what he terms the "spending attitudes" of today's parents and parents-to-be for the bustling activity in bookstore's child-care sections. "The amount of money people are now willing to spend to help themselves be better parents has never been greater," he observes.
That spending certainly begins well before the first trip to the delivery room. During the last week in March, three of the top five entries on Amazon.com's Parenting and Families Bestsellers list were pregnancy guides, including Workman's perennially popular What to Expect When You're Expecting by Arlene Eisenberg, Heidi E. Murkoff and Sandee E. Hathaway, which has returned to press 81 times since its 1991 release, for an in-print total of 9,560,000 copies. (Spin-offs What to Eat When You're Expecting and What to Expect When You're Expecting Pregnancy Organizer boast 823,000 and 434,000 copies in print, respectively.) Debra Williams, director of corporate communication at Barnes & Noble, refers to the original tome as "the bible for pregnant women, and definitely a mainstay of our business in the parenting area."
The success of this title was apparently not lost on Paula Spencer, whose Everything Else You Need to Know When You're Expecting: The New Etiquette for the New Mom is out this month as a Griffin trade paperback from St. Martin's. Spencer advises the expectant mother on how and when to break the good news about the pregnancy to her boss and how to deliver the bad news to her mother-in-law that the baby will not be named after her, among many other topics.
April is also the due date for DK's release of an expanded, updated edition of Miriam Stoppard's Conception, Pregnancy & Birth, the original 1993 version of which has sold more than one million copies worldwide. And coming in the fall from Taylor--where 20% of the company's list falls under the childcare-parenting umbrella--is Trying Again: A Guide to Pregnancy After Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Infant Loss by Ann Douglas and John R. Sussman, M.D.
It's not only the traditional titles that crowd today's parenting sections--as family boundaries expand, new titles are reflecting these societal changes. According to the New York City--based Stepfamily Foundation (www.stepfamily.org), a predicted 50% of U.S. children will go through the divorce of their parents before they are 18. This issue has been addressed on several popular TV shows (Dawson's Creek, Party of Five)¸and many publishers, too, are taking note. At Wildcat Canyon Press in Berkeley, Calif., publicity director Leia Carlton notes that the publication of I Was My Mother's Bridesmaid: Young Adults Talk About Thriving in a Blended Family by sisters Erica and Vaness Carlisle will coincide with Stepfamily day, September 16. Due from Wildcat Canyon the following month is Stepmothers and Stepdaughters: Relationships of Chance, Friendships for a Lifetime, whose author, producer/director/actress Karen Annarino, has been a stepdaughter for 25 years.
Sleepless Nights, Frantic Days
Though the volume of spring or fall 2000 books focusing on parenting adolescents and teenagers eclipses the number of titles aimed at guiding parents through the diaper days, there are notable newcomers in the latter category. And with good reason: booksellers polled unanimously said that expectant and new parents are the most frequent visitors to their parenting sections. According to Jessica Wood, children's department manager of Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vt., "Pregnancy and baby books are still the primary sellers for us in the parenting category." At Amazon.com, senior editor (and new mom) Rebecca Staffel notes, "We still sell more baby books than anything else in the parenting area. New parents--myself included--want to learn all the basics and will buy five books at one time. We want to know what Dr. Sears, Penelope Leach and the other experts have to say. There's room for many voices in this category."
The voices of Dr. William Sears and Martha Sears are heard in their eighth addition to Little, Brown's Sears Parenting Library, whose earlier titles have sold 750,000 copies since 1996. A month after its March release, the publisher has already advanced the bulk of its 50,000-copy first printing of The Breastfeeding Book: Everything You Need to Know About Nursing Your Child from Birth Through Weaning.
Since acquiring the adult division of Golden Books last year, St. Martin's continues to fulfill that division's 15-book contract with Parents magazine. Recently released as Griffin paperbacks were the first titles in the As They Grow series, Your One-Year-Old and Your Two-Year-Old, as well as a quartet of titles launching the I Can Do It series, which focuses on a child's physical milestones for each of the first four years of life. Both series are penned by the editors of Parents. In another magazine-based venture, Ballantine has teamed up with Parenting to create Parenting Guide to Your Toddler, by Paula Spencer with the editors of Parenting. This volume is out this month, as are two reissues of earlier titles in this series, Parenting Guide to Pregnancy & Childbirth and Parenting Guide to Your Baby's First Year.
As its name suggests, Long Beach, Calif.-based Brilliant Beginnings develops kits aimed at nurturing babies' intellectual development from birth. It will issue Toddler Brain Basics in June with a 30,000-copy first printing. Like its predecessors, Baby Brain Basics and Toddler Brain Basics, this package includes a parent guidebook, toy-buying guide, a music CD and rhyming photo book. Also offering a variety of items to stimulate baby is Miriam Stoppard's Baby's Learn & Play Pack, a DK April release offering a book, activity cards, audiotape and toys. Barbara Rowley presents tips for keeping young ones busy in Baby Days: Activities, Ideas, and Games for Enjoying Life with a Child Under Three (Hyperion, Jan.); and Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn, authors of the 200,000-copy seller Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk, offer additional advice in Baby Minds: Brain-Building Games Your Baby Will Love, due from Bantam in July.
Geared toward those who become parents in their late 30s and 40s--a group cited by several retailers as an increasingly important customer base--is an April paperback from Crown's Three Rivers Press imprint. Lois Nachamie, who had her first baby at 41, has written So Glad We Waited!: A Hand-Holding Guide for Over-35 Parents. Nancy Perkins, buying director for Book Passage in Corte Madera, Calif., where 1999 sales of parenting books "were up phenomenally from the prior year," adds that "books aimed at older, first-time parents is a big growth area for us."
Help with Problem-Solving
Having survived the infant and toddler years, parents of older kids are more likely to search out solution-oriented tomes on specific subjects than more sweeping, development-geared guides, report publishers and booksellers alike. At Parenting Press, publisher Carolyn Threadgill cites the "busyness" of today's parents as a key factor shaping her list and those of other houses. "Parents don't have time to sift through a 500-page book to find the answers they want," she tells PW. "Shorter, more targeted books better fit their needs and their diverse concerns. A mother dealing with her two-year-old's temper tantrums d sn't want to read a lengthy discussion about temper tantrums as a part of a developmental stage. She wants a book offering specific solutions to the problem."
The trend toward practical, problem-solving guides is especially evident in books addressing the always debatable subject of discipline. At Parents magazine, senior editor Diane Debrovner, who regularly scours publishers' offerings for books to excerpt, remarks on the sizable number of recent tomes on this topic, as well as the stance many take. "I have noticed somewhat of a movement back to the direction of being firmer with young children," she says. "There seems to be a renewed appreciation of the importance of setting limits." Indeed, the titles of three spring paperbacks from Parenting Press indicate a no-nonsense approach: Go to Your Room! Consequences That Teach by Shari Steelsmith; Taking "No" for an Answer and Other Skills Children Need by Laurie Simons; and Jan Faull's Unplugging Power Struggles, which maps out three strategies for dealing with conflicts with children.
Tactics for alleviating everyday tugs-of-war between parents and kids are also the focus of a recent HarperCollins hardcover, Kids, Parents, and Power Struggles by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, whose Raising Your Spirited Child has sold some 350,000 copies (and was reissued last month in a HarperPerennial edition). Kurcinka's latest tackles issues of special concern to today's overloaded parents, says HarperResource editorial director Megan Newman. "With more and more parents working outside the home, there has been a swing toward more permissive parenting and many parents feel they have lost control of their own children and must take it back." Aimed at nipping such problems in the bud is another HC title, coming in July--An Ounce of Prevention: How Parents Can Stop Childhood Behavioral and Emotional Problems Before They Start is by Lawrence E. Shapiro. In February Morrow released Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline: The 7 Basic Skills for Turning Conflict into Cooperation by Becky A. Bailey, a Ph.D. who specializes in early childhood education and developmental psychology.
Familiar to many harried parents of teens as the author of the 300,000-copy bestseller, Get Out Of My Life, but First Could You Drive Me and Cheryl to the Mall?, Anthony E. Wolf has written a new book addressing behavioral problems of younger children. Due in August from Farrar, Straus & Giroux is The Secret of Parenting: How to Be in Charge of Today's Kids--from Toddlers to Preteens--Without Threats or Punishment. Elizabeth Dyssegaard, executive editor of FSG paperbacks, explains that Wolf has devised strategies for dealing with tantrums and backtalk that "avoid returning to the punishment-filled parenting style that was common a generation ago."
Busy parents can find "quick takes on a range of issues" in Perigee's The Parenting Survival Kit by Aleta Koman with Edward Myers, says executive editor Sheila Curry Oakes. Another title that's aimed at providing solutions to common behavioral concerns is Rules for Parents, a Berkley trade paperback by Nan Silver.
Raising Good Kids in Trying Times
In the words of Debrovner at Parents magazine, "Columbine changed everything." Last year's tragic school shootings in Littleton, Colo., she explains, "have cast an enormous shadow on parents' and educators' attitudes. Parents' worst nightmare has come true: despite their best efforts, kids can grow up to be violent people." The media furor following this shocking incident brought numerous issues into the spotlight for parents, educators and psychologists, among them the importance of raising moral, nonviolent children and the need to keep them safe in a violent world. And, clearly, the publishing world took notice. Beth Puffer, manager of New York City's Bank Street Bookstore, tells PW that she has observed "more and more books being published on character-building and moral education, which I believe is a natural response to what parents see around them and the fears they have about raising children in today's environment."
Though values-oriented guides to child-rearing are hardly new, there are clearly a growing number of them among publishers' new releases. Family psychologist and bestselling author John Rosemond advocates teaching youngsters self-control and respect for others in Raising a Nonviolent Child (Andrews McMeel, Sept.). Two child psychiatrists and a clinical psychologist have collaborated on Right Vs. Wrong--Raising a Child with a Conscience by Barbara M. Stilwell, M.D., Matthew R. Galvin, M.D., and S. Mark Kopta, coming from Indiana University Press next month.
Just out from Crown/Three Rivers Press is a reprint of a volume that sets out to teach basic values, Emotionally Intelligent Parenting: How to Raise a Self-Disciplined, Responsible, Socially Skilled Child by Maurice J. Elias, Steven E. Tobias and Brian S. Friedlander. Harmony will publish a follow-up title by this trio, Raising Emotionally Intelligent Teenagers, in the fall.
A handful of recent books focuses on the role of a viable, loving family unit in fostering strong moral sensibilities in youngsters. In It Takes a Parent to Raise a Child (Griffin, Aug.), pediatrician (and dad) Glen C. Griffin underscores the crucial role of parents, rather than others outside the family unit, in determining children's "rules-of-life." Never one to mince her words, radio talk-show host and author Laura Schlessinger delivers a clear message in a bluntly titled June release, Parenthood by Proxy: Don't Have Them If You Can't Raise Them (HC/Cliff Street).
Another straight talker, Dana Mack, offers an indictment of society's threats to family cohesiveness as well as a blueprint for change in The Assault on Parenthood, which Encounter Books issued as a paperback reprint in January. Danish family therapist Jesper Juul urges understanding and loving behavior between parent and child in The Competent Child: Toward New Basic Values for the Family (FSG, Nov.), and Peter Goldenthal emphasizes the importance of cooperation among all family members in Beyond Sibling Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Become Cooperative, Caring, and Compassionate (Holt/Owl, Feb.).
Publishers continue to acknowledge that protecting their children from violence is a high priority for today's parents. Carol Silverman Saunders issues a call to action--and outlines steps for parents to take--to ensure their children's security in Safe at School: Awareness and Action for Parents of Kids Grades K-12, a St. Martin's Griffin paperback out in January. Due next month is Dell's reprint of Gavin De Becker's Protecting the Gift: Keeping Children and Teenagers Safe (and Parents Sane), which Staffel at Amazon.com (where this title ranked 11th on the 1999 list of parenting bestsellers) calls "one of the best guides to helping children make right choices in today's world."
A March release from Times Books presents strategies for parents to help kids protect themselves from peers' hurtful behavior and words. Scott Cooper, author of Sticks and Stones: 7 Ways Your Child Can Deal with Teasing, Conflict, and Other Hard Times, suggests, "If the only tool a child has is a hammer, he'll pound people with it when he's threatened. However, if he also carries around lighter, more subtle tools, he'll have them available to try first."
Communication Is Crucial
In an environment in which parent-child dialogue is essential, finding the time, opportunity and direction for meaningful conversation is an enormous challenge. Several authors of new books reach out to parents with advice on communicating with kids about important topics. Launching a new paperback series for Hyperion this month is Ten Talks Parents Must Have with Their Children About Violence by Dominic Cappello, a parent educator and policy advocate on school violence and harassment protection. (The second volume, Ten Talks Parents Must Have with Their Children About Sex and Character, is due in September.) Hyperion associate publisher Ellen Archer views this as an important and timely tome: "We live in a tabloid world and kids are exposed to grisly news reports at a very early age. Parents need the tools to discuss with their kids the traditionally 'taboo' subjects like sex and violence at earlier ages."
Two fall releases also give parents tips for improving communication with youngsters: What Did I Just Say!?!: How New Insights into Childhood Thinking Can Help You Communicate More Effectively with Your Child by Denis Donovan, M.D., and Deborah McIntire, an Owl paperback reprint from Holt; and Running Press's Talking Pictures by Ronald Madison and Corey Schmidt, which explains how to use movies to spark discussions on such issues as love, sex, drug abuse and death.
Delivering messages to kids through one's actions is at the core of several new releases. Sal Severe approaches the topic head-on in How to Behave So Your Children Will, Too! Viking plans a 20-city author tour to promote the September release; Good Housekeeping has purchased first serial rights.
A number of authors have recently tapped into another crucial aspect of parental communication--how to build and reinforce a child's sense of self. Released in February as part of Barron's Parenting Keys series was Keys to Developing Your Child's Self-Esteem by Carl Pickhardt; Karin Ireland offers similar tips in Boost Your Child's Self-Esteem (Berkley, Apr.). Just out from Adams Media is Why Can't You Catch Me Being Good?: 26 Principles of Raising Self-Confident, Well-Behaved Children, in which Edythe Denkin urges parents to think positively and focus on what they and their children are "doing right." And a trio of March titles centering on more specific situations affecting youths' self-esteem are the debut volumes in Firefly Books's Issues in Parenting series: The Overweight Child: Promoting Fitness and Self-Esteem by Teresa Pitman and Miriam Kaufman, M.D.; Kim Zarzour's Facing the Schoolyard Bully: How to Raise an Assertive Child in an Aggressive World; and When Girls Feel Fat: Helping Girls Through Adolescence by Sandra Susan Friedman.
Tackling Teens, 'Tweens' and Boys
"Parents of teenagers are coming out of the woodwork for advice," quips Book Passage's Nancy Perkins, who has witnessed a receptive market for books on specific issues, including drugs, alcohol, eating disorders and violence, as well as more general guides to navigating the sometimes stormy seas of parenting young adults. Among the authors who have jumped in to help are Carol Maxym and Leslie York, whose Teens in Turmoil: A Path to Change for Parents, Adolescents, and Their Families, argues that "out of control" teens are actually in control of the family. Viking executive editor Janet Goldstein views this February title as a "family recovery book that empowers parents to take back their lives and make the family work together again."
A mother of seven, Jennie Hernandez Hanks draws on personal experience in A Little Secret for Dealing with Teens: One Mom's Revolutionary Approach to the Parent/Teen Relationship, a May title from Health Communications. Teens themselves sound off in another HCI paperback, Why Can't We Talk?: What Teens Would Share if Parents Would Listen, by Michelle L. Trujillo.
Parents gearing up for the teen years will find advice in some new titles centering on raising "tweens," middle school-aged youngsters who represent a significant bulge in this country's population. Laura Sessions Stepp, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, examines this pivotal developmental stage in Our Last Best Shot: Guiding Our Children Through Early Adolescence, a June Riverhead release. Out this month are, from Holt, Raising a Thinking Preteen by developmental psychologist Myrna B. Shure with Roberta Israeloff; and, from Facts on File/Checkmark, Susan Panzarine's A Parent's Guide to the Teen Years: Raising Your 11- to 14-Year-Old in the Age of Chat Rooms and Navel Rings.
The strength of the market for books addressing the challenges of parenting sons is evident in the success of two benchmark books on this topic as well as the new crop of boy-targeted tomes. A number of publishers and booksellers, including Debra Williams at Barnes & Noble, attribute the past year's school shootings--virtually all committed by boys--as a principle factor driving sales. In her words, "It is obvious that people are trying very hard to reach their sons, to talk with them and help them through issues. We are really seeing a boost in this area of parenting books." Top sellers in this category for B&N, as well as for other retailers polled, are William S. Pollack's Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood, which by the end of 1999 had 500,000 copies of the Owl paper edition in print; and Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys by Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson. Ballantine reports a hardcover in-print total of 120,000 copies for the latter title, which it reprinted earlier this month in trade paper with a 50,000-copy print run.
Another respected author, Michael Gurian (who penned the 300,000-copy bestseller The Wonder Years), answers a useful question for parents in What Stories D s My Son Need?: A Guide to Books and Movies That Build Character in Boys (Tarcher, June). Due the following month from Simon & Schuster is The War Against the Boys, in which Christina Hoff Sommers argues that many schools' anti-boy prejudice have led to boys' social and educational weakness.
Helping Father (and Often Mom) to Know Best
Publishers appear to be paying increasing attention to fathers, acknowledging the growing number of stay-at-home dads and the greater involvement many fathers have in their children's lives. "There is a growing market for books for and about fathers," observes Lara Asher, associate editor at St. Martin's, "because people are realizing, in these challenging parenting times, how important it is to have a father playing a strong role and to create as close a family unit as possible." Coming from SMP just in time for Father's Day is J. Gerard Smith's Fathers: A Celebration, which features photographs and interviews with dads.
A founding editor of Ms., Suzanne Braun Levine takes a look at men who are becoming the fathers that many wish they had had in Father Courage: What Happens When Men Put Family First. Bradley G. Richardson reaches out to first-time dads in a spring title from Taylor, DaddySmarts: A Guide for Rookie Fathers, which, according to senior editor Camille N. Cline, "is written in an irreverent, guy-to-guy tone and gives common-sense answers to questions that plague brand-new fathers." Offering a humorous take on fatherhood for the uninitiated is Thomas Hill's What the Heck Were You Expecting?: A Complete Guide for the Perplexed Father (Three Rivers, June). Al Roker, Today weatherman and host of that show's "Today's Dad" segments, has written a collection of essays on the perils and pleasures of fatherhood, the title of which will sound all too familiar to seasoned parents: Don't Make Me Stop This Car!: Adventures in Fatherhood (Scribner, June).
One of the inaugural releases from Robins Lane Press should score a hit with dads who are sports fans. Covering Home: Lessons on the Art of Fatherhood from the Game of Baseball is by Jack Petrash, father of three, teacher for 25 years and avid Yankee fan. "This book uses anecdotes and allegories of baseball to teach lessons about being a good father," notes publisher Justin Rood, who expects that this fall hardcover will have strong sales as a gift item. The majority of the publishers and retailers queried, in fact, mentioned that books on fatherhood were more often than not purchased as gifts--often by either the wife or mother of the recipient.
Despite their evident attention to dad, publishers are hardly ignoring mom. Booksellers report frequent requests for "I'm Not Mad I Just Hate You!": A New Understanding of Mother-Daughter Conflict by Roni Cohen-Sandler and Michelle Silver, issued as a Penguin reprint this winter. The combined voice of the authors--a therapist who has worked with teens for years and a magazine columnist, respectively-- is "incredibly effective," states Goldstein, who notes that the hardcover edition of the book returned to press six times and has sold "in the mid-five figures." Due from Routledge next month is psychologist Paula J. Caplan's The New Don't Blame Mother, a revised edition of her 1990 examination of myths about mothers. Also coming from Routledge is a book of advice for mothers of mothers: a reprint of Grandparenthood by Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Steven Kaplan--a grandmother of three and father of three, respectively.
Spreading the Word
Time spent in grocery-store lines, at office fax machines and on the sidelines of kids' soccer games offers parents abundant opportunity to swap notes about their findings, from restaurants to novelists, which those on the receiving end may or may not remember when they have a precious night out or a few stolen minutes to dip into a novel. But what parent won't dash out to a store to grab a book they hear about that promises to end backtalk, whining or sibling squabbling? By all publisher and bookseller reports, consumer word-of-mouth is a highly effective promotional tool for parenting books. "Obviously, when parents talk among themselves, the conversation will gravitate toward their children," observes FSG's Dyssegaard. "And very often, when one parent complains about not being able to get a toddler to sleep or about something unacceptable a teenager did the night before, another parent will say, 'You have to read this book.' And they will."
Among the ranks of authors of books on family issues and on children's behavioral, medical, educational and social problems, many are professionals who spread word of their books to both colleagues and parents through conferences and speaking engagements. Though not all publishers arrange to sell books at authors' lectures, attendees' exposure to an author often results in future sales. And to prepare promotional mailings, those on publishers' marketing staffs invariably ask authors for lists of personal contacts and organizations. Such resources are useful, notes Taylor's Camille N. Cline, "for locating a ready audience to pitch the book to and for doing further research to find even more markets."
The far-reaching consumer and professional networks in the childcare and parenting fields can also open doors to special promotions for books. Jennifer Harris, promotion manager at DK, reports that her department created 50,000 fliers touting its new and backlist parenting titles for the American Baby Group, a national organization that will insert the fliers in promotional packs distributed at childbirth classes and in hospital maternity wings.
Crown scored an impressive promotional coup when the Ms. Foundation selected one of its titles, Sylvia B. Rimm's See Jane Win: The Rimm Report on How 1,000 Girls Became Successful, as this year's official tie-in to its annual "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day." The publisher has supplied the foundation with fliers that will be inserted into packages available to corporations participating in the day's events, and Rimm, a regular Today commentator on parenting issues, is a spokesperson for the event. Three Rivers has ordered a 50,000-copy print run for its spring reprint of the book, which has sold more than 90,000 copies in its cloth edition.
Parent-Friendly Marketing Venues
Publishers unanimously praised the Internet as a highly effective marketing tool for books for parents. Many authors have their own Web sites, which are often linked to their publisher's site. Cathy Melnicki, assistant manager of on-line marketing for DK, explains that her department is in the process of creating what she terms a "sitelet" for parenting books, a miniature version of the company Web site, which will feature only books in this category, in order to "make it one step easier for consumers to find what they're looking for."
Such parent-targeted Web sites as Parents.com, family.com, ParentTime.com, Canwetalk.org and Ivillage's ParentSoup.com offer publishers advertising and promotional opportunities as well. Robin Aronson, editor-in-chief of Parents.com, explains that this site frequently features chats with authors, as well as book reviews and notices of titles by authors who have either contributed to or have been interviewed in the pages of Parents magazine. Established in 1998, the site boasts two million page views each month. Visitors can order any title mentioned on Parents.com through its link to Barnesandnoble.com.
When asked about successful nontraditional outlets for their parenting books, publishers most often mention catalogues that offer books and other educational items to parents and educators. Carolyn Threadgill estimates that such catalogue sales represent 35% of Parenting Press's business. Her company also relies on direct mailings in order to reach what she describes as "that huge, amorphous market" made up of such professionals as family counselors, parent educators, day-care center directors and social workers.
At Taylor, where parenting titles account for 20% of the company's total special sales, Cline says that her house has been especially successful selling books to doctor's offices. And occasionally a publisher hits the special sales jackpot, as when a leading pharmaceutical company chose a 1999 Checkmark title as a premium to promote the launch of a pediatric drug. Elizabeth Malafi, director of special sales, notes that this manufacturer purchased 100,000 copies of William Feldman's The 3 a.m. Handbook: the Most Commonly Asked Questions About Your Child's Health, accounting for the bulk of the book's 120,000-copy sales total.
Publishers and retailers agree that parenting books have unusually strong backlist potential. Perkins at Book Passage tells PW, "Backlist titles absolutely carry the parenting section." Becky Cabaza of Three Rivers describes this genre as "an evergreen category, right up there with health and fitness." Though hardcover sales on average parenting books "tend to go out modestly," says HC's Newman, "stores will order the paperback edition over and over."
This has certainly been Threadgill's experience at Parenting Press, which has published 72 titles in its 20 years of operation, 68 of which are still in print. "Those that went out of print were the only books we ever published that weren't parenting titles," she explains. "We know we will not get wildly rich publishing parenting books, but we know we are making a difference. That's enough of a push to keep us going. And luckily, there are always new children--and new parents--coming along."
Defining Kids' Success
It has to do, no doubt, with today's fiercely competitive times: a growing num- ber of parenting books center on the idea of striving to secure a child's success. Some offer guidelines for parents, others sound wake-up calls and warnings. An example of the latter is Hyper-Parenting: Are You Hurting Your Child by Trying Too Hard?, in which parents' quest for perfection--in themselves and in their kids--comes under fire from authors Alvin Rosenfeld, M.D., and Nicole Wise. This recent St. Martin's title, says executive editor Jennifer Weis, "asserts that the widespread overzealousness in the current generation of parents is not helping children, but diminishing their self-esteem and sense of accomplishment. Parents too often project their own desires on their kids rather than consider what is best for them."
"Achievement by Proxy Disorder" is the label authors Ian Tofler and Theresa Foy DiGeronimo give parents who project their own needs and aspirations onto their offspring--sometimes at enormous cost. In their October Jossey-Bass release, Keeping Your Kids Out Front Without Kicking Them from Behind: How to Nurture High Achieving Athletes, Scholars and Performing Artists, executive editor Alan Rinzler says that they "caution against parents playing out their narcissistic fantasies through their children and outline a plan for encouraging gifted children without pushing them too hard."
Parents seem to have an insatiable hunger for books aimed at helping children succeed in school, and publishers are responding. At New York City's Bank Street Bookstore, Beth Puffer observes that parents "are more educated and concerned about education than many parents in the past. They view the world as a very competitive place where their children must have a good education to succeed--and they feel it's never too early to start."
Promising to present a strategy for keeping kids "on a focused academic path that will guide them toward acceptance into the college of their choice" is a July paperback from Warner, The Middle School Years: Achieving the Best Education for Your Child Grades 5-8 by Michele A. Hernández. Also aimed at improving students' skills
is an April title from Yale University Press, How to Increase Your Child's Verbal Intelligence: The Language Wise Method by Carmen McGuinness and Geoffrey McGuinness.
Signaling cautionary notes about this country's educational system are a trio of upcoming titles. In Jossey-Bass's Getting Our Kids Back on Track: Educating Children for the Future, Janine Bempechat advocates a return to what Rinzler terms "achievement-oriented education instead of feel-good education focused on building a child's self-esteem." Roger Schank encourages parents to foster a child's individual interests and passions rather than conforming to the guidelines of the established academic system in Coloring Outside the Lines: Raising Smarter Kids by Breaking All the Rules (HC, July). And Alison Armstrong and Charles Casement suggest that the billions of dollars spent annually on educational technology in the U.S. may be misguided in a book from Robins Lane Press, The Child and the Machine: How Computers Put Our Children's Education at Risk.
Success on the playing field rather than in the classroom is the focus of several new releases. Winning a game d s not make a child a winner, insists sports psychologist Shari Young Kuchenbecker, author of Raising Winners:
A Parent's Guide to Helping Kids Succeed on and off the Playing Field (Times Books, May). In Will You Still Love Me if I Don't Win?: A Guide for Parents of Young Athletes, Christopher Andersonn with Barbara Andersonn explain how motivating young athletes in a positive way can lead to personal and athletic achievement. A core message of this March paperback, says Taylor senior editor Camille N. Cline, is "the importance of playing fair, winning and losing with dignity and being a team player. In essence, it's a blueprint for life."
--S.L.
Nourishing the Parental Soul
Perhaps a sign of these often trying times, a substantial number of parenting books with inspirational, spiritual or religious themes are rolling off press this year. Mary Yockey of Anderson Bookshop in Naperville, Ill., observes that "parents may be feeling at a crisis point in terms of wondering how they can protect their children from violence and other threatening things in the world. Many parents are searching for support."
And publishers are providing it. Mark Sweeney, associate publisher of Word Publishing, reflects that "clearly it is significantly more difficult than ever before to raise children in these uncertain times. There is a greater need than ever for instruction, help and encouragement. The books that we publish call on the need to return to biblical morality, standards and ethics." Due in August from this press is Timothy Jones's Nurturing a Child's Soul, which sets out to help parents nourish their children's faith and spiritual lives. Two recent paperbacks focus on raising daughters: Twelve Going on Twenty: Nurturing Girl Power with God's Power by Kim Camp and The Mother Daughter Connection: Building a Lifelong Bond with Your Daughter by Susie Shellenberger. Word has also just issued What the Bible Says About Parenting: Biblical Principles for Raising Godly Children, a paperback previously published in cloth as Successful Christian Parenting.
Focusing primarily on the Christian market, Howard Publishing in West Monr , La., is building a sizable list of family-related titles. Managing editor Philis Boultinghouse explains that contemporary parents' frustrations have led the company to pay greater attention to this genre. "We are very aware that many parents do not think they can raise their kids to be moral and faithful in this difficult world," she observes. "They are feeling entirely defeated and we are publishing books that show them how it ispossible for them to keep their kids and families morally strong. We're a small company but we're trying to make an impact." To this end, Howard recently released Raising Faithful Kids in a Fast-Paced World by Dr. Paul Faulkner; Fantastic Families: 6 Proven Steps to Building a Strong Family by Nick and Nancy Stinett and J and Alice Beam; and What Kids Wish Parents Knew About Parenting by J White.
Books with spiritual or religious messages for parents span many approaches and themes. In a new Riverhead trade paperback, Parent as Mystic, Mystic as Parent, David Spangler describes parenthood as a spiritual journey. Aimed at Christian dads is a fall release from Morehouse Publishing, Listen, My Son: St. Benedict for Fathers by Dwight Longenecker. This author maintains that developing a strong bond with God will help fathers establish loving relationships within their families. Benig Mauger addresses the importance of connection to the spiritual world during childbirth in Reclaiming the Spirituality of Birth, just released by Inner Traditions. And Lee F. Gruzen provides advice to parents of different faiths in an updated edition of Raising Your Jewish/ Christian Child, a Newmarket Press fall title.
Booksellers register enthusiasm and high hopes for an inspirational book released this month by Warner, Katrina Kenison's Mitten Strings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry. "This is a beautiful, gentle book that avoids pontificating about being a perfect parent. Instead, it offers real-life stories and draws your attention to the need to slow down and pay more attention to those poignant and wonderful moments of parenthood," says Yockey, who looks forward to Kenison's visit to her store at the end of the month. Within days of receiving her initial order of 100 copies of this title, Yockey had reordered 100 more and plans to handsell the book to both mothers and fathers. (For more on this title, see Book News, March 20.) --S.L.
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