Nonfiction books about parenting run the gamut from brain science and development to behavioral / lifestyle philosophies to gentle communication and much more. If you’re interested in seeing what new books on parenting are available, check out any of the following. As of this writing, all of these books are available at the Davenport Public Library. Descriptions are provided by the publishers.

8 keys to parenting kids & teens with ADHD : supporting your child’s executive function by Cindy Goldrich

Build foundational communication, social–emotional, and decision-making skills to foster your child’s independence.

In this second edition of her bestselling book, ADHD expert Cindy Goldrich offers compassionate, science-backed tools to help parents support their child’s growth in patience, communication, emotional regulation, and independence.

With fresh insights, expanded strategies, and current research, this update emphasizes the crucial role of executive function, elaborates on important conversations parents should have with their children, and offers thoughts on helping children transition into post–high school life. With approachable action items and prompts, caregivers are guided through eight key concepts: getting educated, creating calm, strengthening connections, cultivating good communication, teaching collaboration, achieving clarity and consistency, setting impactful consequences, and navigating choices.

Here parents will discover why traditional discipline often backfires, and learn how to foster the skills kids truly need to succeed—using empathy, collaboration, and practical solutions. – Norton Professional Books

The cost of quiet : how to have the hard conversations that create secure, lasting love by Colette Jane Fehr, LMFT, LMHC

An empowering, healing guide that reveals the true cost of avoidant behavior in a relationship—disconnection, disengagement, and divorce—and shows how we can instead learn to speak up and start connecting with the ones we love most.

“I wish I had spoken up sooner.”

People think relationships fail because of deal breakers like infidelity, finances, or parenting problems. But the real culprit is often much less dramatic: emotional disconnection after years of staying silent and avoiding conflict. We’re afraid to say what we need because we worry about what will come next.

Avoidant behavior—the need to “keep the peace” rather than dealing with conflict head on—isn’t our fault. Our ingrained attachment wiring urges us to sidestep day-to-day disputes and brush lingering problems under the rug. But silence is a losing proposition in the long term, leading us to self-abandon and essentially “quiet quit” our relationships.

We can make another choice. In The Cost of Quiet, licensed marriage and family therapist Colette Jane Fehr shines a light on the epidemic of avoidant behavior and how to overcome it. Drawing from the latest attachment science and evidence-based therapies she’s used to repair the bond between hundreds of couples, Fehr gives us the tools to approach those we love with openness, honesty, and vulnerability. The ultimate goal: a securely attached relationship that engages with conflict productively, and the confidence that comes from speaking up and being heard—because a good relationship is worth fighting for. – G.P. Putnam’s Sons

How to deal with your ____ so your kids don’t have to : an encyclopedia for ditching your emotional baggage by Eli Harwood

An Indispensable Tool for Becoming the Emotionally Mature Parent You Aspire to Be

Are you determined to parent differently than you were raised? Ready to break cycles, heal old wounds, and give your children the emotionally close relationship you always wanted? This is your roadmap.

Why This Book?

• Written by USA Today bestselling author & family therapist Eli Harwood
• Practical, no-nonsense guidance for parents and parents-to-be
• Alphabetically organized for quick, targeted help—flip to the growth area you need, when you need it

Inside, You’ll Discover How to Heal From:

• Complicated emotional states like anger, anxiety, body image struggles, and jealousy
• Insecure habits such as people-pleasing, toxic comparison, blaming, and denial
• The lingering effects of insecurity or trauma from your own childhood

What You’ll Gain:

• Tools to heal yourself—so your children don’t have to carry your pain
• Strategies to build a secure, emotionally close bond with your kids
• Confidence to become the emotionally mature and reliable parent you wish you’d had

This compassionate reference guide will help you navigate the messy emotional moments of parenthood so that you can give your kids the invaluable gift of an emotionally secure parent. Start your healing journey today—for them, and for you. – Sasquatch Books

The Japanese way of parenting : and what it taught me about raising (mostly) calm, caring, capable kids by Lisa Katayama

In this fascinating half-memoir, half-parenting guide, Lisa Katayama shares her quest to raise her American kids using Japanese parenting principles—combining unconditional love with unwavering rules.

While Bringing Up Bébé introduced readers to the French way of raising obedient children who are seen but not heard, and Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother shared an in iron-will parental approach to creating high-achieving kids, Lisa Katayama’s The Japanese Way of Parenting brings the principles of Japanese parenting to Americans, emphasizing unconditional love, community, and harmony with nature, to nurture children who are well-behaved, respectful, and creative. 

Japan is well known for its culture of respect, technological innovations, delicious food, peaceful vibes, and deep connection to nature. The source code to all of it is the way the Japanese view childhood—as a time of rigorous training for societal participation, where they learn from the start that are just one part of a larger whole. Katayama takes readers along with her as she travels back and forth from her motherland of Tokyo to the East Bay of California to expose her two American, mixed-race kids to the Japanese way of parenting. Readers will be inspired to take some of her insights—the importance of routine and ritual or the benefits of simplified spaces or the power in making everyday things cute—and adopt them into their own parenting, no matter where they live.   – Workman Publishing Company

Love, finally : untangling the knot between mothers, daughters, and food by Geneen Roth ; foreword by Anne Lamott

For nearly four decades, Geneen Roth has been a trusted voice guiding women to give up dieting and end compulsive eating. Her books have sold millions of copies, and her workshops have months-long waiting lists. But only recently, when she was diagnosed with cancer, did she begin to understand how deeply entwined her feelings about her body are with her relationship to her mother. And, she realized, this is true for almost every woman: the voice inside our heads, the voice we use to talk to ourselves, which criticizes the size of our thighs or the softness of our stomachs—these are all-too-often the voices of our mothers.

Roth was determined to untangle her sense of self from her mother’s judgment. Working with a blind eighty-six-year-old wisewoman, Roth learned to distinguish between her mother’s influence and her own truer inner knowing. Roth began to see that it was not what her mother said or did that made her unhappy, but what Roth believed about herself because of what her mother said or did. For the first time, Roth began to understand how peace does not depend on external circumstances—you do not need to wait for someone else to change—it relies only on what you yourself choose to believe.

Written in her signature style—funny, self-deprecating, soulful—Love, Finally is Roth’s story of discovering the deeper awareness that set her free. This transformative, healing book is an essential roadmap for anyone who wants to repair their relationships with food, their families, and themselves. – The Dial Press

The myth of the perfect mom : from postpartum perfection to everyday joy by Erin Schlozman

Let go of impossible standards and embrace a more joyful, authentic postpartum experience with this self-help guide for new moms.

Are you tired of feeling like you have to “do it all” as a mom? Do you ever think, “Life was easier before kids” or “Why is this transition so hard?” After becoming a mother, priorities change, self-compassion changes, ambition changes…everything changes. And on top of all of these dramatic life shifts, and the exhaustion of parenthood, mothers are expected to climb the Mount Everest of adulthood: be the best mom, the happiest mom, the most perfect mom.

But perfection is impossible to achieve. The good news? You don’t have to be everything for everyone. The Myth of the Perfect Mom breaks down the harmful myths surrounding what it takes to be a great mom, and nine other “myths” that weigh new mothers down in postpartum. Erin Schlozman, therapist and owner of 4th Trimester Wellness, provides compassionate, practical guidance for creating a postpartum life rooted in connection, grace, and self-acceptance.

The Myth of the Perfect Mom places the spotlight on the new mom’s emotional and psychological wellbeing and development, because motherhood is as much about the birth of a mom as it is about the baby.

Schlozman addresses ten different myths of being a perfect mom, including:

• Your birth should have been executed perfectly.
• Moms should feel bonded to their babies immediately.
• Postpartum bodies are ugly.
• You’re either ambitious, or a good mom, but you can’t be both.

The Myth of the Perfect Mom gives mothers the permission and the guidance to move past outdated ideals, be kind to themselves, and stop trying to be perfect, so that they can parent in the way that is most authentic to them. – Alcove Press

Parenting anxiety : breaking the cycle of worry and raising resilient kids by Meredith Elkins, PhD

A timely, practical, and innovative look at the relationship between parent and child anxiety, with actionable strategies to help parents break the cycle—from a clinical psychologist with expertise in treating anxiety disorders in children, adolescents, and in parents.

How do you raise resilient kids in this age of uncertainty? And how do you parent your kids if you yourself are anxious?

Parenting is hard, even more so if you struggle with anxiety or have children who do. Seeking guidance means confronting an explosion of content shaped by cultural ideals of how “good” parents should manage anxiety. How do you make sense of this avalanche of advice and support your child’s mental health—or, at the very least, not make things worse?

Much of this content, unfortunately, encourages parents to act in ways that actually increase the risk of child anxiety in the long term. In trying to protect kids from anxiety, loving parents may block the very paths kids must take to build courage and confidence.

Dr. Meredith Elkins, a clinical child psychologist and faculty member at Harvard Medical School, demystifies anxiety and empowers parents to rethink “negative” emotions like fear, sadness, and guilt. A parent herself, Dr. Elkins argues that modern parenting pressures are major contributors to the current state of parent and child anxiety. She urges parents to clarify their values and embrace a “love and limits” approach to anxiety—balancing compassionate support with healthy boundaries while resisting the urge to shield children from every discomfort.

With warmth and understanding, Dr. Elkins provides concrete, evidence-based guidance to help families experiencing normal levels of anxiety, as well as those coping with anxiety disorders. This indispensable resource offers readers a road map for addressing anxiety in children and parents, and promotes adaptability and resilience across all stages of development. – Crown

The period & puberty parenting revolution : it’s time to own the conversation, empower your child, and rewrite the rules of parenting kids through puberty by Charis Chambers, MD

Break the Cycle. Empower Your Child.

From board-certified gynecologist Dr. Charis Chambers, known to millions as @theperioddoctor, comes a revolutionary guide that transforms how we parent kids through puberty. The Period and Puberty Parenting Revolution equips you to raise confident, informed children who understand and respect their bodies―without shame, confusion, or fear.

Whether your puberty experience was riddled with silence and embarrassment, or you simply want to show up differently for your child, this book is your roadmap. It’s for the mom determined to give her daughter what she never had. It’s for the dad ready to break generational silence. It’s for every caregiver who believes reproductive education is a cornerstone of liberation, safety, and self-worth.

In this powerful book, you will learn:

• How to talk to your child about periods and puberty without shame, stigma, or awkwardness
• Practical tools to prepare your child for their first period―and what to do if it comes unexpectedly
• Ways to teach body autonomy, safety, and protection in an age-appropriate, empowering manner
• Strategies to support your child’s mental health and self-esteem through hormonal and body changes
• How to become the trusted adult your child turns to first about periods, sex, relationships, and beyond

Your child deserves better than fear and secrecy. You deserve to feel confident, calm, and prepared. Join the revolution of parents guiding kids positively through periods and puberty―and change your child’s life forever. – Sourcebooks

Raising kids and teens with FASD : advice and strategies to help your family to thrive! by Barb Clark ; foreword by Rebecca Tillou

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) affects up to 1 in 20 people, and is particularly prevalent among young people in the adoption and fostering system. As a hidden brain injury, FASD can manifest in ways that often lead to challenging behaviors, which can feel overwhelming for caregivers relying on traditional parenting strategies.

In this supportive guide, Barb Clark shares her experiences raising a child with FASD – what she got wrong, what she got right, and what you can do to support your own family. Through chapters including plain-English explanations of what FASD actually is, the strengths and struggles of kids with FASD, and strategies for keeping your head above water, Barb offers practical advice for looking after yourself and your family.

This is an essential read for parents and carers of kids and teens with FASD, as well as the professionals supporting them. – Jessica Kingsley Publishers