Showing posts with label parenting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parenting. Show all posts
Jan 1, 2014
Dad is fat - Jim Gaffigan
Summary: "In Dad is Fat, stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan, who's best known for his legendary riffs on Hot Pockets, bacon, manatees, and McDonald's, expresses all the joys and horrors of life with five young children--everything from cousins ("celebrities for little kids") to toddlers' communication skills ("they always sound like they have traveled by horseback for hours to deliver important news"), to the eating habits of four year olds ("there is no difference between a four year old eating a taco and throwing a taco on the floor"). Reminiscent of Bill Cosby's Fatherhood, Dad is Fat is sharply observed, explosively funny, and a cry for help from a man who has realized he and his wife are outnumbered in their own home"--Provided by publisher.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
Clean-mouthed comedian Gaffigan—best known for his riffs on Hot Pockets, McDonald's, and bacon—lived by himself for more than 13 years before getting married and fathering five children who now reside with him and his wife, Jeannie, in a two-bedroom New York City apartment. What began as a series of tweets about the everyday chaos of this self-professed loner's life has now become Gaffigan's hilarious first book. In 60 short chapters that read like stand-up bits, the comedian shares his insights on being the youngest of six kids in a Catholic family and explains why adults are really just "giant toddlers." He covers everything actual toddlers love, from candy to cousins, mocks preschool and nut allergies in three swift paragraphs, and explains why he and Jeannie opted for five home births as well as how they are raising so many kids in a such a tiny living space. Occasionally, Gaffigan feels the need to explain his jokes, but he needn't worry, as this laugh-out-loud collection also is one of the most honest and endearing portrayals of fatherhood penned by a contemporary comedian. The inclusion of dozens of photographs featuring Gaffigan's adorable family furthers the personal touch. 50 b&w photos. (May)
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Apr 1, 2012
This is US - David Marin
Summary: It was no mystery why California had 98,000 children stuck in foster care. There were not 98,003 because I was stubborn.
When David Marin fell in love with three abandoned children desperately in need of a home, there was only one thing he could do. Give up his relatively carefree life and learn how to become a parent. In the process, he found the future he had always wanted, but he also learned some hard lessons about single-parent adoption, the Kafkaesque side of Social Services, and America's anti-immigrant sentiment: Heartbreaking, funny, and inspiring, This Is US chronicles Marin's quest to create a better life for these children?and for himself.
- (Perseus Publishing)
ForeWord Magazine Reviews
Good books often give us some laughs and/or add to our knowledge about a relatively unknown subject. In addition to satisfying on both of those counts, this story had to be told—as a form of therapy and pride for its author, but mostly to hold up a mirror to our nation's incompetent social structure, in which far too many children are considered disposable.
Like any new parent, David Marin pulls the narrative equivalent of adorable photos from his wallet. His four-year-old daughter's recitation of the alphabet: "A-B-C-D-E-F-G, H-I-J-K-I'm a little pea," or the fact that his youngest prefers to be called "Shrek" and carries an ID with that name from a family visit to an aquarium.
In some ways, his three young children are typical, growing out of their shoes by the day and delighting in McDonald's. Their memories, however, distinguish them: Nightmares in which "robbers," aka cops and social workers, repeatedly take them away from each other and the people they love; how rubbing food on your lips can keep hunger at bay for a while longer; and that taking lettuce from the pet rabbit's cage when no one is looking is one way to survive. When the two-year-old messes his diaper for the first time in their new home, his four- and six-year-old siblings stand between him and the author, their new dad, to protect their brother from the wrath (and abuse) they've come to expect.
As a single adoptive parent of foster children in California, Marin sees his sacrifices as few, and his rewards innumerable: Instead of golfing seven times a month, he'll golf seven times a year. He is unapologetic about his desire to not be alone as he ages, or, as a light-skinned, redheaded man, to celebrate his late father's Puerto Rican heritage by adopting Latino children.
Marin's frustration with "the system" over the three years it takes to finalize his dream, plus his increasing horror at learning the details of what his beloved "angels" endured, structures a mostly discouraging tale. A chapter titled "Walnut" tells about the social worker who makes a surprise visit, and, while completely ignoring the children, offers to buy his daughter's walnut bedroom furniture because she's been looking all over "for a set just like it." The stats about prospective parents who begin the foster-cum-adoption process and ultimately burn (or opt) out are chilling.
Throughout his story, Marin receives much-needed emotional support, advice, and help from a woman he dates, who is a mother, as well as his own mother and sisters. He also gets released from a good-paying job and is forced to relocate after he makes public his plans to adopt. He subsequently sues his employer.
When a judge finally grants the new family's long-awaited adoptions, he says to Marin, "There are people out there who would try to save their sperm or hire a surrogate mother . . . ?But you went out and found kids who needed a home, and I am impressed with that." It's impossible not to be.
This is US is a celebration of difference. It will educate all prospective adoptive parents about what to expect from the adjustments required in building their new families, but will be especially valued by those willing to welcome the neediest children.
© 2011 ForeWord Reviews. All Rights Reserved.
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Sep 1, 2011
The Duggars - Michelle Duggar
Summary: A behind-the-scenes look at this supersize, faith-filled family from Arkansas that's full of entertaining and enlightening stories, photos, recipes, tips, traditions, and practical ideas for rearing happy children.
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Dec 1, 2010
Believing it all: what my children taught me about trout fishing, jelly toast, and life - Marc Parent
Summary: Assuming that life's most difficult questions may in fact be answerable, the author offers an inspirational look at fatherhood, playfulness, and spirituality. - (Baker & Taylor)
Publishers Weekly Reviews
Having in Turning Stones chronicled his years as a social worker in New York City, when he witnessed the tragic abuse and neglect that so many children endure, Parent now shares a more positive, almost idyllic vision of family life in rural Pennsylvania. In vignettes from his tenure as the stay-at-home father of two small boys, he offers insights and ruminations on the lessons of parenthood that are "hidden beneath the roar of everyday living." Because it is still exceptional when men take on the role of primary caregiver for their preschool children while their wives go off to work, this author's thoughts may be taken much more seriously than similar musings by women. Parent is a fine writer, who deftly reveals the profound truths and important insights that spring from the intense intimacy of raising a child. A newborn who briefly stops breathing immediately after arriving home from the hospital, a three-year-old entranced by a dead squirrel in the road, a first somersault and an endless round of preschool interviews all bear Parent's close scrutiny. As his children grow, Parent expresses a range of responses from "some days I'd really just like to have a dinner where I don't have to jump up to help someone use the toilet" to appreciating the "overwhelming and absolute power" of having children who look up to you and believe all that you tell them. (May 24) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
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Jan 4, 2010
Making toast - Roger Rosenblatt
Summary: Describes how, after their adult daughter's sudden death, the author and his wife moved in with their son-in-law and three grandchildren, quickly becoming reaccustomed to the world of small children and helping the family grieve and get on with life. - (Baker & Taylor)
Booklist Reviews
When their daughter, Amy, died, Rosenblatt and his wife virtually moved in with their son-in-law and three grandchildren, all trying valiantly to cope with the death of a loving young woman and doctor felled by an asymptomatic heart condition. The Rosenblatts plunged themselves into the lives of Harris, six-year-old Jessica, four-year-old Sammy, and one-year-old James, shopping, cooking, shuttling, and tending to broken hearts, including their own. Essayist, author, and playwright Rosenblatt, as grandfather Boppo, is tender and amusing as he recalls simple moments in the life of his daughter. His wife, Ginny, a former schoolteacher, essentially leads Amy's life in her absence, congregating with the mothers at the children's school activities and outings. Blindsided by Amy's death, they are all fragile in their concerns for other family members; tardiness or a choking fit become occasions for worry. Friends who have lost children commiserate on the unbearable loss. Sensitive without being sentimental, Rosenblatt eases any potential discomfort on the reader's part at this invitation to view one family's efforts to cope with loss. Copyright 2010 Booklist Reviews
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