Books for Teens

 

BOOK:There Are No Simple Rules for Dating My Daughter
Author: Laura J. Buddenberg & Kathleen M. McGee
Summary:

• This book gives parents a window into the teen dating scene and shows them how to maintain their sanity amid all the crushes, courtships, and infatuations of adolescents.
• Both the fears and the fun of teen dating are revealed as the Author:s look at some of its biggest issues:

• Age (How old should your daughter be before she starts dating, and what age should her dates be?)
• Today's Teen Scene (How has dating changed since you were in high school?)
• Car Dates (Does your daughter have an escape route if a good date goes bad?)
• Appropriate Attire (When skin is in, is a bar midriff, backless dress, or plunging neckline being fashionable or foolish?)
• Gift Giving (Are gifts of underwear going over the top?)
• Internet Use (What are the dangers of meeting people and discussing dating relationships over the Web?)
• Breaking Up (How do you console a heartbroken teen? What can you do to help your daughter gracefully exit a relationship?
• Sample activities will help you get the conversation started. Inside, real-life dating stories, many silly, some scary, serve to remind parents that dating is a valuable experience that shouldn't be denied or trivialized.

BOOK: Parenting Without Pressure
Author: Teresa A. Langston
Summary:

• A whole-family workbook for resolving parent-child conflict and establishing order in the home
• Emphasizing communication, unconditional love, and a structured environment, the approach will involve your whole family in the parenting process.
• How to establish fair rules with workable consequences and motivating incentives.
• Remove the struggle but keep your Author:ity with discussions about rules and consequences that prepare your children for the real world ahead.

 

BOOK: A Chicken's Guide to Talking Turkey with Your Kids About Sex
Authors: Dr. Kevin Leman, Kathy Flores Bell
Summary:

• A straightforward guide for parents and educators about teaching young people about the first period, first nocturnal emission, dating relationships, STDs, molestation, and much more.
• Advice in down-to-earth terms concerning what needs to be taught, how to build a bond of trust and support, and how to sound fully credible when promoting abstinence in a culture that is media-soaked with sexual imagery.
• Basic tips concerning trials of puberty such as proper hair and skin care, oral hygiene, and more.
• Covers his or her development not just from the waist down, but also from the neck up, where the important decisions about sex are made.
• Illustrated with real life scenarios, this book is filled with practical knowledge and biblical wisdom. It is a book of firsts: first bra, first shave, first period, first nocturnal emission, first school dance, first discussion about relating to the opposite sex.
• Moms, discover how to buy that first athletic supporter for your son in Little League.
• Dads, learn how to navigate the feminine hygiene aisle at the supermarket for your daughter.
• Tools you need to help your kids not only understand their growing bodies, but cope with the temptations and social pressures that go with them.

BOOK: Changing Children's Behavior by Changing the People, Places and Activities
Author: Richard L. Munger, Ph.D.
Summary:

• Makes the case that the environments in which a child lives, plays, and studies are even more important than personality in shaping that child's behavior.
• Making changes in the people, places, and activities in a child's life can have profound effects on his or her behavior.
• Identifies ten "behavior settings" in which children and adolescents spend most of their time - home, neighborhood, school, after-school, electronic (TV, computer, and other media), friends, work, faith, recreation and leisure, and sports.
• Settings and the presence of interesting, challenging activities and adult mentors in them can make a big difference in helping children develop into motivated, compassionate, and competent adults.
• At the end of each chapter, he provides a quiz to help parents develop a profile of their child's environmental strengths and weaknesses and then makes suggestions to improve them.

BOOK: Common Sense Parenting, 3rd Edition
Author: R Ray Burke, Ph.D., Ron Herron, and Bridget Barnes
Summary:

• Here's a great guidebook for parents of children ages 6 to 16 facing a myriad of family challenges: a teen who's defiant; siblings who constantly bicker; a child having trouble in school, or parents and kids who occupy the same house but don't communicate or have fun together anymore.
• Provides parents with a menu of proven techniques that will aid them in building good family relationships, preventing and correcting misbehavior, using consequences to improve behavior, teaching self-control, and staying calm.
• Approaching discipline as positive teaching rather than punishment of their children.
• Encouraging children by recognizing their good behavior and teaching before problems occur are as important as correcting children's negative behavior.
• Parents also learn how to help children solve problems, reach goals by using charts and contracts, and practice new social skills.
• As each new parenting technique is introduced, the Author:s explain each step, provide many clear examples, and give parents an action plan for implementing it in their home.

 

BOOK: The Power of Discernment:Helping Your Teen Hear God’s Voice Within
Author: Maggie Pike, St. Mary’s Press, 2003
Summary:

• This book shows that it really is possible to make such a lofty principle as discernment understandable, practical, and useful to a ten-year-old, a fifteen-year-old, a young person on the brink of adulthood.
• Offers a method of spiritual discernment for dealing with issues such as peer pressure, friends, sexuality, change, and family well-being.
• A method of parenting centered in God.

 

Book: Please Stop the Rollercoaster! How Parents of Teenagers Can Smooth Out the Ride
AUTHOR Sue Blaney, ChangeWorks Publishing & Consulting, Acton, MA,2004
Contact: Family Life Office Archdiocese of Omaha