Reading list

Some of the books we either already have, or want to read soon, on childcare, adoption, and nutrition. Plus, some of our favourite books that we’re looking forward to reading with our child.

Childcare & Childrearing:

• ‘The Baby Book‘ by Dr. William Sears, Martha Sears, Robert Sears, and James Sears (owned)
  • Childcare over the first two years of life, from an attachment parenting viewpoint. This book is written by a medical doctor, his wife who’s a nurse, and two of their sons. They’ve spent years studying attachment parenting, and raised several children that way, including the two who went on to become doctors and co-authored the book with them. It seems pretty comprehensive (it’s over 3″ thick), and there’s a lot of useful info in there – I think we’ll be turning to this book many times over the coming years.
• ‘The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decisions for Your Child‘ by Robert Sears (owned)
  • There seems to be so much conflicting info about vaccinations. This book is a good place to start; it’s written by a doctor, but it contains a pretty balanced account of each vaccine, including its ingredients. It also talks about each of the diseases they’re for, how prevalent they are, how serious, etc. It’s given us enough information to begin to decide which vaccines we want to give and which ones we’re uncomfortable with.

• ‘Attached at the Heart: 8 Proven Parenting Principles for Raising Connected and Compassionate Children‘ by Barbara Nicholson and Lysa Parker (owned)
  • A book on attachment parenting written by the founders of API. Doesn’t contain much info that we hadn’t already read online, but does have some useful references and statistics to use as back-up if we get any stick over our parenting style.
• ‘The Diaper-Free Baby: The Natural Toilet Training Alternative‘ by Christine Gross-Loh (owned)
  • On how to practice ‘Elimination Communication’ with babies; or how to tell when even a new born needs to go & how to help them to do so. If this only ends up meaning we have one less nappy to change each day, it’ll be worth it! It also seems like it would promote attachment with a child. If they learn they can rely on you to help them with everything they need, including their elimination needs, that can only be a good thing.
• ‘Teach Your Baby to Sign: An Illustrated Guide to Simple Sign Language for Babies‘ by Monica Beyer (need this)
• ‘Babywatching‘ by Desmond Morris (owned)
  • A lovely book about the first year of life from the baby’s point of view.
• ‘Parenting from the inside out: how a deeper self-understanding can help you raise children who thrive‘ by Daniel J Siegel & Mary Hartzell (need this)
• ‘W.I.S.E. up powerbook‘ by Marilyn Schoettle (need this)
  • A little book, well booklet really, that helps teach kids how to respond to questions about their adoption, letting them know it’s OK to just walk away, not answer the question, or share as much or as little as they like.

Adoption:

• ‘Adoption: The Essential Guide to Adopting Quickly and Safely‘ by Randall Hicks (library copy)
  • A great book to get you through the adoption process. Covers everything from finding the right agency and attorney, all the way through to completing the process.
• ‘Attaching in Adoption‘ by Deborah D. Gray (library copy)
  • We read this when we were considering adopting older children through the fost-adopt route, since it’s mostly about the attachment issues that those kids might have. It’s useful info to have though for any adopted child, and we’ll be rereading this one if our child begins to have problems processing their adoption as they get older.
• ‘Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Parents Knew‘ by Sherrie Eldridge (need this)
• ‘Lifebooks: Creating a Treasure for the Adopted Child‘ by Beth O’Malley (adoption agency copy)

Veganism & Nutrition:

• ‘Pregnancy, Children and the Vegan Diet‘ by Dr. Michael Klaper (owned)
  • A good overview of the vegan diet for children, but lacking in references. It’s probably also now a little out of date (our copy is from 1997), not that the world of nutrition science changes all that quickly.
• ‘Feeding Your Vegan Infant with Confidence: a Practical Guide from Pre-conception Through to Pre-school‘ by Sandra Hood (owned)
  • More up-to-date than the previous book, and does far better on giving references to actual research. Neither book taught us anything we didn’t already know, but they’re useful to have to double check things and to show to doctors in the future.
• ‘Vegan Nutrition‘ by Jill Langley, PhD (owned)
  • More indepth than the previous two, with a thorough section on vegan mothers and children, and with more references too.
• ‘Vegan Infant Case Histories’ published by Plamil Foods (owned)
  • A useful little booklet with details of lots of children who’ve been raised vegan, talking about how healthy they all are, and with details of typical daily food intakes for them. Will be a useful one to show to doctors in the future if they’re ignorant of the benefits of a vegan diet.

Kids’ Books

• ‘That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals: A Book About Vegans, Vegetarians, and All Living Things‘ by Ruby Roth
• ‘The Princess and the Goblin‘ by George MacDonald
• ‘The Magic Faraway Tree‘ by Enid Blyton
• The Harry Potter books by JK Rowling
• ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factor‘ by Roald Dahl
• ‘The Hobbit‘ by JRR Tolkien
• ‘The Mulberry Bird: an Adoption Story‘ by Anne Braff Brodzinsky & Diana L Stanley