This is a collection of the best parenting books recommended by experts. Every parent does the best they can, but there are times when the challenges can feel overwhelming and exhausting. Our growing collection of parenting books recommended by experts is aimed at providing information and good advice for parents to help them to raise happy, confident and resilient children.
This section covers mindful parenting, motherhood, fatherhood, child development, play, education, vaccines, child psychology and more. We have recommended books for before birth, and the infant stage to teenage years.
Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain was recently featured as one of the best science books to take on holiday.
Our experts include professors and leading figures in their field, so whatever your parenting questions, you are bound to find the answers here.
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Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children
by Viviana A Zelizer -
2
Social Development
by H. Rudolph Schaffer -
3
The Roads of Chinese Childhood
by Charles Stafford -
4
The Child in the City
by Colin Ward -
5
The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger
by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett
The best books on Children, recommended by Jo Boyden
The best books on Children, recommended by Jo Boyden
We all know how children should be brought up, and rarely question the cultural norms that underly that certainty. But what does that mean for the policies we try to impose on the developing world? Jo Boyden, professor of international development at Oxford University and director of its Young Lives study, picks books that question our assumptions about how to successfully raise a child.
Deborah Levy on Motherhood in Literature
Aristotle tells us that all politics starts in the family, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the infamously fraught relationship between mother and daughter. Here, the novelist, playwright and poet Deborah Levy chooses five books – or rather, four books and one film – that explore motherhood.
Best Books About Dads (for younger kids), recommended by Paul Howard
Depictions of fathers in children’s books have leapt forward in recent years, says illustrator Paul Howard. He talks us through his favourite visions of modern dads in books, from the ultimate macho man to fathers at their most vulnerable.
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The Playdate: Parents, Children and the New Expectations of Play
by Tamara Mose -
2
Producing Excellence: The Making of Virtuosos
by Izabela Wagner -
3
Young Money: Inside the Hidden World of Wall Street's Post-Crash Recruits
by Kevin Roose -
4
Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys
by Victor M Rios -
5
Close to Home: A Materialist Analysis of Women's Oppression
by Christine Delphy
The best books on Millennials, recommended by Malcolm Harris
The best books on Millennials, recommended by Malcolm Harris
The Millennial cohort is often characterised as a shallow, social media-obsessed generation that puts avocado toast ahead of the future. But in reality they are overeducated, underemployed and beset by anxiety, says Malcolm Harris, millennial and author of Kids These Days. Here he selects five books that paint a more accurate portrait of the first generation to come of age in the 21st century.
The best books on Happiness for Children, recommended by Vanessa King
What is happiness? Why does happiness matter? Vanessa King, lead psychologist at the charity/non-profit Action for Happiness, discusses how developing ours and our children’s happiness skills can have benefits for our own lives and for society as a whole.
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The Memoirs Of Marguerite De Valois
by Marguerite De Valois -
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Why Not Say What Happened?: A Memoir
by Ivana Lowell -
3
Casting with a Fragile Thread: A Story of Sisters and Africa
by Wendy Kann -
4
The Mighty Queens of Freeville
by Amy Dickinson -
5
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
by Cheryl Strayed
The best books on Memoirs of Dauntless Daughters, recommended by Nancy Goldstone
The best books on Memoirs of Dauntless Daughters, recommended by Nancy Goldstone
In her book The Rival Queens, historian Nancy Goldstone explored the destructive relationship between Marguerite de Valois and her mother Catherine de’ Medici. Here she chooses five different memoirs that best explore the emotionally complex dynamics that characterise mother-daughter relationships.
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Polio: An American Story
by David Oshinsky -
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Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver
by Arthur Allen -
3
The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to the Growing Vaccine Crisis
by Paul Offit -
4
Microbe Hunters
by Paul de Kruif -
5
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic
by Steven Johnson
The Best Vaccine Books, recommended by Seth Mnookin
The Best Vaccine Books, recommended by Seth Mnookin
November 9th, 2020: We’ve just heard the news that Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine is 90% effective, at least in the short-term, raising the possibility that the coronavirus pandemic may finally be brought to an end. The history of vaccines is an absolutely fascinating one, and we highly recommend all the books discussed in this 2013 interview with Seth Mnookin, author of The Panic Virus and Professor of Science Writing at MIT. These are all gripping reads that tell the story of vaccines, medicine’s greatest life-saver, and the risks people took to find them.
The best books on Fatherhood, recommended by Kyle Pruett
Fathers and mothers play very different roles in a child’s development, says Kyle Pruett, Clinical Professor in the Child Study Center at Yale School of Medicine—and both are essential. He recommends books on fathers and fatherhood—for both parents.
The best books on Mindset and Success, recommended by Carol Dweck
If you’ve stepped inside a school recently, you’ve probably heard teachers talking about the importance of a ‘growth mindset.’ Here psychologist Carol Dweck, who pioneered research into this key concept, explains what it’s all about and recommends books—other than her own—that shed light on it.
The best books on Human Imperfection, recommended by Henry Normal
Poet, writer and Bafta winning TV and film producer, Henry Normal, talks about his experiences bringing up his autistic son, the need for acceptance and why we should all embrace our human imperfections. Along the way he recommends five books that inspired him as a young man and continue to inspire him today.