NurtureShock, by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman turns recent ideas about parenting and children on their heads. It is a great antidote to the typical parenting advice of the last 25 years. Bronson and Merryman use recent well-executed developmental research on topics such as praise, lying, educational testing of young children and self-control to challenge our well-held beliefs.

In this very pressured and often misguided parenting environment, it is helpful to have some good data behind you to back up stands that are out of the mainstream. NurtureShock will help you take your child’s ERB score with more than a few grains of salt, stop unwittingly encouraging your kids to lie, and realize that you are actually pressuring your kids by praising them. Dr. Spock would be proud.