Recommended Book List

Silas Marner by George Eliot

Silas Marner is a respected member of the small 19th Century rural religious community of Lantern Yard, but his world is shaken when he is wrongfully accused of a theft and expelled as a pariah. He settles anonymously in the town of Raveloe in a hermit-like existence in an isolated cottage. His weaving skills and penurious lifestyle help him amass a small fortune over the next fifteen years, but he is devastated when Dunstan Cass, the wastrel son of the local squire, steals his hidden hoard of gold and disappears. Shortly thereafter, the despondent Marner discovers an orphaned little girl whom he adopts as his own. Unbeknownst to him the child's father is Godfrey Cass, Dunstan's brother, who fears the consequences of revealing the child's true paternity.

Father Need by Dr. Kyle D. Pruett

Fathers have always parented differently than mothers. In Fatherneed, Dr. Kyle D. Pruett shows mothers and fathers why that difference is so important to a child's physical, cognitive, and emotional development.

Drawing on more than two decades of highly acclaimed research at the Yale Child Study Center, and backed up by true stories from actual families, Fatherneed is the essential how-to guide for women and men who wish to promote engaged fathering. This book will help enable fathers to give their children the skills they need to develop into happy and healthy adults. Step by step, Dr. Pruett specifically addresses what a father can do to prepare his marriage, his house, and his emotions for his child's needs, from infancy through the toddler years, childhood, adolescence, and young and mature adulthood.

With advice to fathers ranging from how to speak to toddlers so that they listen, to how to avoid the common tendency to reinforce gender stereotypes in young children, to how to maintain a connection with an increasingly autonomous teenager, Fatherneed is the perfect resource for all dads-including divorced fathers, fathers of adopted children, stepfathers, and fathers of special-needs children-as well as moms who want kids who are meaningfully connected to their fathers. With wit, authority, and compassion, Dr. Pruett shows how to be sure that your child gets what only a father can provide.

Partnership Parenting by Drs. Kyle and Marsha Pruett

Men and women not only have naturally different communication styles, but unique approaches to parenting as well. While mothers tend to overprotect their kids, fathers tend to push them toward independence. And whereas many experts tend to advocate “a united front,” Drs. Kyle and Marsha Pruett reveal how Mom and Dad not always being on exactly the same page— which, initially, may seem to cause conflict— can actually strengthen the whole family.

Informed by the Pruetts' research and extensive experience with parents and children, Partnership Parenting offers a new outlook. In addition to fascinating biological insights, the book features strategies for negotiating common “landmine situations” from birth to age eight, from discipline and bedtime to helping kids with homework and teaching them responsibility.

With wisdom and humor, Partnership Parenting helps couples take advantage of their individual strengths to raise confident children while simultaneously improving their marriage.

The Myth of the Missing Black Father by Roberta L. Coles and Charles Green

Common stereotypes portray black fathers as being largely absent from their families. Yet while black fathers are less likely than white and Hispanic fathers to marry their child's mother, many continue to parent through cohabitation and visitation, providing caretaking, financial, and other in-kind support.

This volume captures the meaning and practice of black fatherhood in its many manifestations, exploring two-parent families, cohabitation, single custodial fathering, stepfathering, noncustodial visitation, and parenting by extended family members and friends. Contributors examine ways that black men perceive and decipher their parenting responsibilities, paying careful attention to psychosocial, economic, and political factors that affect the ability to parent. Chapters compare the diversity of African American fatherhood with negative portrayals in politics, academia, and literature and, through qualitative analysis and original profiles, illustrate the struggle and intent of many black fathers to be responsible caregivers. This collection also includes interviews with daughters of absent fathers and concludes with the effects of certain policy decisions on responsible parenting.