RocketEd’s Best Books for Parents

This is a collection of 10 carefully selected books that guide parents from the early years right through to adolescence, providing insight into alternative ways to deal with the challenges thrown our way. They are in no particular order as they offer such different things, but they are all listed because we think they are relatable and easy to digest, they provide answers when those can seem elusive, and sometimes it's helpful for parents to ‘step outside’ and hear an alternative perspective from someone with useful advice to impart. Parenting isn’t easy, but these books can empower parents at the hardest times and teach them how to relate to their child in new, positive ways. And that’s good for everyone!

‘How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk’

by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish

Based on the underlying principle that children need to own their own feelings and to take responsibility for their actions, this book presents a range of simple, user-friendly techniques for parents. It provides support to develop a non-confrontational, structured environment which includes children in decision-making and suggests ways to respectfully encourage them to take responsibility. This book will help parents to tune in to how their child feels and understand why they react the way they do in certain situations. 

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‘Listen: Five Simple Tools to Meet Your Everyday Parenting Challenges’

by Patty Wipfler and Tosha Schore

This insightful book can help parents understand why their child behaves the way they do and why they react to them in particular ways. It provides practical strategies and emotional support for making positive changes. It stresses the importance of listening - really listening - and opens your mind up to a new way of assessing situations by taking a realistic, firm but kind approach, acknowledging the pressures both parents and children face. 

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‘No Bad Kids: Toddler Discipline Without Shame’

by Janet Lansbury

This book emphasises a respectful approach to parenting toddlers without resorting to shaming or punishment. Its aim is to support parents to raise children who are emotionally literate, respectful of others, empathetic and able to reason and make their own decisions. It helps parents to recognise, and to teach young children, that strong emotions are normal and acceptable and to develop age appropriate ways to manage them. Lansbury discusses a range of practical strategies to help toddlers behave well through setting boundaries that they are able to understand. 

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’Raising Boys in the 21st Century’

by Steve Biddulph 

This is the book for any parents of boys seeking insight into what motivates them and how to steer them towards becoming confident, well-rounded and emotionally literate men. Biddulph writes in a reassuring, wise and practical way which is easy to follow and provides solid guidance on how to bring up boys through different developmental stages. This is a book parents will return to again and again. Highly recommended. 

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‘Ready or Not: Preparing Our Kids to Thrive in an Uncertain and Rapidly Changing World’

by Madeline Levine

In this book, Levine argues that parental overinvolvement can lead to ‘learned helplessness’ in children, leading to difficulties adapting to life’s challenges. Instinctively, as parents in the post-pandemic phase, we want to do everything possible to make sure that our children haven’t been too badly disadvantaged by its effects. But beware - sometimes what we think is in the best interests of our children actually does more harm to them than good. In this book, Levine warns that a parenting style focusing on academic attainment, combined with a drive to shelter children from sadness, discomfort and anxiety, is actually setting up future generations to fail rather than help them make up for lost learning. You can read more about this in this blog post.

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‘The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did)’

by Philippa Perry

This really is the book parents will wish their own parents had read, and for the sake of their own children they’ll be very glad that they did. By reflecting on how we interact with each other and why, it encourages the reader to think about all of their relationships, not just those with their children. Parents might wince as they think about how they respond to their children but Perry is gently reassuring that it is never too late to make positive changes or, in her words, to “repair a rupture.” This is essential reading for any parent who wants to bring up mentally healthy, confident and happy children. Essential reading and highly recommended.

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‘The Gentle Parenting Book’

by Sarah Ockwell-Smith

The foundations of gentle parenting are mutual empathy, respect, understanding and boundaries. Ockwell-Smith emphasises treating your child as an equal, rather than someone to have control over. This book has a focus on the early years but is also of value to parents of older children who are considering a change of focus from an authoritarian approach to something, well, gentler. We like the emphasis that everyone is human, and perfection is not the goal. It's about doing the best you can and ensuring that time with your child is calm and relaxed.

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‘The Whole Brain Child’

by Dan Siegel and Tina Bryson

This book takes a scientific but accessible approach to explaining the causes of human behaviour by explaining how the human brain works, for both children and adults. Through explaining 12 strategies for supporting neurodevelopment, it offers useful tips on how to explain things to children with clear diagrams alongside easy-to-understand language and some useful printouts to use in the home. Informative and very helpful.

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‘Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason’

by Alfie Kohn

For many parents, this challenging but easy-to-read book will turn everything they think they know about managing their children’s behaviour on its head. Kohn questions whether it is necessary for parents to be in full control of all aspects of their children's behaviour (it isn’t) and whether instead  it would be better for children to learn how to make their own choices, so that they understand their own preferences and can take responsibility for their actions (it would.) The aim of the book is to move parents from actively controlling their children to encouraging them to empathetically guide children to make their own choices. An excellent read. 

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‘Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood’

by Lisa Damour

Easy to read, informative and written with humour, empathy and experience, this book will help parents navigate their daughters’ transition from child to woman. Using real scenarios as well as  suggested wording for various conversations, this perceptive book provides insight into teenage girls’ behaviour and clear guidelines on when, and when not, to be concerned. A must read for parents of daughters.