Check out our recommended reading on the following topics:
Parenting
Children’s Development
Daycare Critiqued
Family Economics
Learning, Schooling, Education
Exploitation
Consumer Society, Commercialization and Corporate Control
Politics, Economics and Families, Care, Unpaid Work
Women, Feminism, Mothers
* = Canadian author
Parenting
Your Brain on Childhood: the Unexpected Side Effects of Classrooms, Ballparks, Family Rooms, and the Minivan by Gabrielle Principe
*Hold on to Your Kids: Why Parents Matter by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Mate
Motherhood: How Should We Care for Our Children? by Anne Manne
Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby’s Brain by Sue Gerhardt
Amazon UK link
Book review
Raising Babies by Steve Biddulph
Raising Boys by Steve Biddulph
The Secret of Happy Children by Steve Biddulph
*Scattered Minds by Gabor Mate (ADD/HD)
The Four-Thirds Solution by Stanley Greenspan
The Irreducible Needs of Children:What Every Child Must Have to Grow, Learn and Flourish by T Berry Brazelton and Stanley I. Greenspan
The Family Bed by Tine Thenevin
An article on the family bed by Katie Allison Granju
The Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff
Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children’s Minds-for Better and Worse by Jane M. Healy
The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by La Leche League International
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Children’s Development
Your Brain on Childhood: the Unexpected Side Effects of Classrooms, Ballparks, Family Rooms, and the Minivan by Gabrielle Principe
Childhood Under Seige: How Big Business Targets Children by Joel Bakan
Short video
Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby’s Brain by Sue Gerhardt
Amazon UK link
Book review
Motherhood: How Should We Care for Our Children? by Anne Manne
Your Baby and Child by Penelope Leach
The Irreducible Needs of Children: What Every Child Must Have to Grow, Learn and Flourish by T Berry Brazelton and Stanley I. Greenspan
Last child in the woods: saving our children from nature-deficit disorder by Richard Louv
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Daycare Critiqued
Motherhood: How Should We Care for Our Children? by Anne Manne
The Day Care Deception by Brian C. Robertson
Amazon.com link
There’s No Place Like Work by Brian C. Robertson
Amazon.com link
Parenting by Proxy by Laura Schlessinger
What Money Can’t Buy by Susan e Mayer
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Family Economics
The Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn
Clutter’s Last Stand It’s Time to De-Junk Your Life! by Don Aslett
Book review
Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence by Joe Dominguez, Vicki Robin
The Four-Thirds Solution by Stanley Greenspan
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Learning, Schooling, Education
Your Brain on Childhood: the Unexpected Side Effects of Classrooms, Ballparks, Family Rooms, and the Minivan by Gabrielle Principe
Childhood Under Seige: How Big Business Targets Children by Joel Bakan
Short video
The Myth of the First Three Years by John T. Bruer
How Children Learn by John Holt
An Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto
Dumbing Us Down by John Tayor Gatto
Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children’s Minds-for Better and Worse by Jane M. Healy
Book review
Mindset: the new psychology of success by Carol S. Dweck
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Exploitation
Childhood Under Seige: How Big Business Targets Children by Joel Bakan
Short video
The Politics of Breastfeeding by Gabrielle Palmer
*No Logo by Naomi Klein
*Free the Children by Craig Kielburger (child labour and slavery)
Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild
Gender by Ivan Illich
Shadow Work by Ivan Illich
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Consumer Society, Commercialization and Corporate Control
Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky
Necessary Illusions by Noam Chomsky
*Ivan Illich in Conversation by David Cayley
*No Logo by Naomi Klein
An Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto
Dumbing Us Down by John Tayor Gatto
Consuming Kids by Susan Linn
What Money Can’t Buy: Family Income and Children’s Life Chances by Susan E. Mayer
The Commercialization of Intimate Life: Notes for Home and Work by Arlie Russell Hochschild
*The Corporation by Joel Bakan (also a movie)
The Technological Society by Jaques Ellul
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Politics, Economics and Families, Care, Unpaid Work
The War on Moms: On Life in a Family-Unfriendly Nation by Sharon Lerner. Ann Douglas blogs about the book and includes video interviews. In one interview Lerner tells about visiting a daycare where 2 adults looked after 38 toddlers.
The Value of Nothing: Why Everything Costs So Much More Than We Think by Raj Patel
Following your heart – in the social utopia of Sweden by Jonas Himmelstrand
The Swedish Experiment in Family Politics: The Myrdals and the Interwar Population Crisis by Allan Carlson (explains the use/abuse of social sciences by Alva and Gunnar Myrdal that brought mass daycare to Sweden and rejected direct funding to families)
Gender by Ivan Illich
The Right to Useful Unemployment by Ivan Illich
Shadow Work by Ivan Illich
There’s No Place Like Work by Brian Roberts
Motherhood: How Should We Care for Our Children? by Anne Manne
Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild
The Politics of Breastfeeding by Gabrielle Palmer
The Careless Society: Community and Its Counterfeits by John McKnight
The Price of Motherhood by Anne Crittenden
*Motherwork by Lorna Turnbull
If Women Counted by Marilyn Waring
Children First by Penelope Leach
Haven in a Heartless World by Christopher Lasch
The Revolt of the Elites by Christopher Lasch
*Pay the Rent or Feed the Kids by Mel Hurtig
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Women, Feminism, Mothers
There’s No Place Like Work: How Business, Government, and Our Obsession with Work Have Driven Parents From Home by Brian Roberts
Book review explaining how big business and ’60s “second wave” feminists cooperated to remove “first wave feminists” hard-won government support for parental child care
If You’ve Raised Kids You Can Manage Anything by Ann Crittenden
Book review
The Politics of Breastfeeding by Gabrielle Palmer
If Women Counted by Marilyn Waring
Book review
The Price of Motherhood by Anne Crittenden
Motherwork by Lorna Turnbull
Haven in a Heartless World by Christopher Lasch
Who Stole Feminism by Barbara Dafoe Whitehead
Gender by Ivan Illich
The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by La Leche League International
Shadow Work by Ivan Illich
Motherhood: How Should We Care for Our Children? by Anne Manne
Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild
The mommy myth: the idealization of motherhood and how it has undermined women by Susan J Douglas, Meredith W Michaels (very funny in parts)
kidsfirstcanada.org 