The Happiest Baby on the Block

 


Dr. Karp is part of a new movement of parents who prefer gentle approaches to raising children, and the data is on his side. Not only do his techniques work, but everything we know about children tells us that straying from these sorts of gentle approaches causes psychological damage. Karp is buiding on the work of Dr. Lawrence Kelemen (To Kindle a Soul: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Parents and Teachers), and he does a good job. Kelemen's book (To Kindle a Soul) is still the classic guide to getting great kids using gentle techniques. I strongly recommend Karp's book for those interested in putting their children to sleep, and I strongly recommend Kelemen's book for gentle and incredibly effective techniques to handle misbehavior, discipline and punishment problems. Kelemen's book also has a lot of information about gently handling ADD and ADHD kids without medication.
I don't like the way it was written. I find the "scientific" explanations to be speculative at best. The "best" part  of the book could be condensed into a much, much shorter volume. Maybe people don't feel they'll get their $10.20's worth if it's only 50 pages?
Despite all that, the trick that it teaches (how to sooth a crying infant, 0-3 months old with swaddling, white noise, side/stomach lying, jiggling, and non-nutritive sucking) absolutely worked for my baby. And it worked quickly, completely and every time. My advice....Skip to the chapters that explain each of the five s methods and those that concentrate on extending sleep, and you will cut out some of the fluff while retaining all of the most precious content. 

The last child by John Hart

This is one of those books that leaves your heart aching and your mind wanting more.
Here is the premise of the book:

A year after 12-year-old Alyssa Merrimon disappeared on her way home from the library in an unnamed rural North Carolina town, her twin brother, Johnny, continues to search the town, street by street, even visiting the homes of known sex offenders, in this chilling novel from Edgar-winner Hart (Down River). Det. Clyde Hunt, the lead cop on Alyssa's case, keeps a watchful eye on Johnny and his mother, who has deteriorated since Alyssa's abduction and her husband's departure soon afterward. When a second girl is snatched, Johnny is even more determined to find his sister, convinced that the perpetrator is the same person who took Alyssa. But what he unearths is more sinister than anyone imagined, sending shock waves through the community and putting Johnny's own life in danger. Despite a tendency to dip into melodrama, Hart spins an impressively layered tale of broken families and secrets that can kill

There were times that I felt like I needed to put the book down because the intensity of my reaction to the characters, their development and the plot were overwhelming in a way that made me think. Throughout the book, I'd convinced myself that I knew how the story was going to end, but I was wrong in every way. I became attached to the characters and at the end of the book, I longed to know where they went from there.