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West Street School's
Parent Library

At West Street School we are here for you and your family.  We've
gathered the following informational resources for you to borrow, if the
need should arise.  If you find a resource that may be of use,
please feel free to check it out of our library.

Apter, T. The Confident Child: A Practical, Compassionate Guide. Describes how to help a child deal with success and failure at school, make and maintain better friendships, deal with issues of sibling rivalry, and deal with anxiety and anger. Suggests concrete ways for parents to help their children like themselves and feel confident.

Hart, Dr. Louise.  The Winning Family : Increasing Self-Esteem in Your Children and Yourself. This book examines the role communication skills play in children's development of self-esteem in order to improve the quality of family life.  Offers expert, compassionate advice on how parents can best give their children a high sense of self-esteem by enhancing their own self-esteem and breaking negative patterns.

Loomans, D. Full Esteem Ahead. A book full of practical ideas and creative ways to foster and support the development of positive self-esteem. Written by a parent-child team, this book received rave reviews and offers heartwarming wisdom about enjoying family life.

Marano, H. "Why Doesn’t Anybody Like Me?": A Guide to Raising Socially Confident Kids". Offers parents down to earth advice on everything from helping their children make new friends to managing schoolyard bullies. Offers strategies that can be used to help children build the interpersonal skills that will carry them through life and that form the core of every strong interpersonal relationship.

New Readers Press. The Safe, Self-Confident Child. Provides information on how to help children improve their self confidence. Offers strategies for dealing with difficult behavior, setting limits, limit setting, etc.

Phelan, T.W. Self-Esteem Revolutions in Children. Discusses the changes that children experience as they grow up. Provides strategies to assist children in developing a positive sense of self. Explains the relationship between discipline and self-esteem.

      
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Canter, L. What to Do When Your Child Won’t Behave: A Practical Guide for Responsible, Caring, Discipline. Offers practical, caring strategies and provides the words, the attitude and the actions to assist your child in acting well behaved and feeling special and secure.

Clark, L. SOS! Help for Parents. A practical guide for helping parents to handle common, everyday behavior problems.

Clark, L. The Time-Out Solution: A Parent’s Guide for Handling Everyday Behavior Problems. Provides practical, step by step strategies for handling common misbehaviors such as hitting, temper tantrums, swearing, etc.

Faber, AA. & Mazlish, E. How to Talk so Kids Will Listen & Listen so Kids Will Talk. Offers innovative strategies on how to listen and understand your child’s concerns, how to have cooperation in your family without nagging, how you and your child can deal with feelings, how to find alternatives to punishment, and how to help your child maintain a positive self-image.

Faber, Adels & Mazlish, Elaine. How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk. This book assists parents in becoming more effective with their children. It offers strategies to cope with children’s negative feelings, set firm limits, use alternatives to punishment, and to resolve family conflicts peacefully.

Faviaro, Peter. Smart Parenting: An Easy Approach to Raising Happy, Well-Adjusted Kids. This book focuses on real life situations faced by all parents and provides ideas and techniques to manage your children in positive and productive ways. Offers ideas for getting kids to do their homework, how to motivate children, what to do if time out does not work, how to talk about uncomfortable topics, and handling everyday concerns.

Golant, Mitch & Corwin, Donna. The Challenging Child: A Guide for Parents of Exceptionally Strong-Willed Children. This book includes discussions of why challenging children are the way they are, common behavior problems and effective discipline methods, the rewards of a challenging child, different learning styles, how to set boundaries for challenging children, and how to build self-esteem.

Greene, R. The Explosive Child. Dr. Greene describes the factors that he believes contribute to the "inflexible-explosive" or "melt-down" behavior that some children are prone to exhibit. He outlines why the typical strategies that work for most children are not effective with these type of children and offers a systematic approach that is aimed at reducing hostility and antagonism between the child and adults, anticipating and taking a proactive approach to situations that are likely to result in "melt-down", improving communication and collaborative problem solving, and assisting the child to develop self-regulation and thinking skills so that he/she can be more flexible and handle frustrations in an appropriate manner.

Kurchinka, M.S. Raising Your Spirited Child. This book helps parents to understand their children’s and their own temperamental traits, to cope with tantrums and blowups when they occur, to discover the power of positive rather than negative labels, and strategies for planning for success.

Nelsen, Jane. Positive Time Out and Over 50 ways to Avoid Power Struggles in the Home and Classroom Provides strategies to empower children by involving them in their behavior changing process, assists in developing an attitude/action plan to avoid power struggles, assists in understanding the mistaken goals of negative behaviors, etc.

Nelson, J. Positive Discipline. A book that conveys a "win-win" atmosphere for children and parents. Easy to learn techniques.

Nelson, J., Lott, L., & Glenn, S. Positive Discipline A to Z: 1001 Solutions to Everyday Parenting Problems. This books helps you solve problem behavior, helps your children feel good about themselves, helps children gain self-confidence and self-discipline, and assists children in learning responsibility and developing problem-solving skills.

Pantley, E. Kid Cooperation: How to Stop Yelling, Nagging & Pleading and Get Kids to Cooperate. A book filled with real ideas for families- practical, purposeful things that can be used to improve family life.

Phelan, Thomas. 1-2-3 Magic! This book helps parents get their children to stop whining, arguing, having temper tantrums, etc. and start doing their homework, going to bed, cleaning their rooms. It also provides ten steps for improving self-esteem.

Weinhaus E. & Friedman, K. Stop Struggling With Your Child. Provides quick-tip parenting solutions that assist parents in working with their children. Discusses how to minimize the battles and maximize success in their children ages 4 to 12.

Weston, D. & Weston, M. Playful Parenting. Provides many wonderful activities to help children cope with problem behavior. The book invites parents to choose from a variety of solution oriented step by step recipes for activities that kids will love to do with their parents.

Wolf, A.E. It’s not fair, Jeremy Spencer’s Parents Let Him Stay Up All Night! A wonderful book written by a local psychologist. Addresses sibling disputes, day to day issues such as bedtime, grumpiness, temper tantrums, and issues such as lying, aggression, and family disputes.

      
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Brebaart, Joeri and Piet. When I Die, Will I Get Better? This gentle book for children tells of a six-year-old boy who tries to come to terms with the death of his younger brother by creating a story about rabbit brothers that closely parallels his own experiences. Simple and moving, this book examines the sadness and anger that result from the death of a loved one, but offers hope that families do return to normal life in time.

Brown, Laurie Krasny and Marc Brown. When Dinosaurs Die : A Guide to Understanding Death. Explains in simple language the feelings people may have regarding the death of a loved one and the ways to honor the memory of someone who has died.

Fitzgerald, H. The Grieving Child: A Parent’s Guide. Offers practical, compassionate advice for helping a child cope with the death of a parent or loved one. Covers areas such as visiting the seriously ill or dying, using language appropriate to the child’s age level, selecting useful books about death, handling difficult situations such as murder or suicide, deciding whether a child should attend a funeral, etc.

Grollman, E.A. Talking About Death: A Dialogue Between Parent and Child. Assists adults in talking to children about the death of a loved one. A compassionate guide for adults and children to read together. Provides a read-along story, answers to questions that children ask about death, and a comprehensive list of resources and organizations that can help.

Mellonie, Bryan and Igpen, Robert.  Lifetimes: A Beautiful Way to Explain Death to Children.  This book offers a simple yet moving way of helping children understand and cope with death as a form of life.

      
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Divorce

Ahrons, C. R. The Good Divorce: Keeping Your Family Together When Your Marriage Comes Apart. Defines the "good divorce" and focuses on how we can learn from those families that maintain family bonds and continue to meet the needs of their children after their marriage ends. Helps parents and children establish new roles, rules, and rituals to support the new family structure.

Blau, M. Families Apart: Ten Keys to Successful Co-Parenting. This book offers a new approach to co-parenting, with solid principles for maintaining communication, caring, and strong family relationships.

Teyber, E. Helping Children Cope with Divorce. Assists divorcing parents in knowing what they can do to help their children successfully adjust to divorce.

Wolf, A. "Why Did You Have to Get a Divorce? and WHEN Can I Get a Hamster?": A Guide to Parenting Through Divorce. Offers advice on all the difficult questions that are raised by divorce. Gives strategies for talking with your child about the divorce, keeping your child from being caught in the middle between you and your ex-partner, and how to help children cope with new partners or siblings.

      
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Special Needs

Getskow, Veronica & Konczal, Dee. Kids with Special Needs: Information and Activities to Promote Awareness and Understanding. This book is a useful resource for both parents and teachers. It provides clear explanations of inclusion, mainstreaming, developing an IEP, an extensive lists of books, films, videos and 800 numbers, as well as games and activities to assist teachers in helping students understand/accept different kinds of disabilities.

Hamaguchi, Patricia. Childhood Speech, Language & Listening Problems: What Every Parent Should Know. This book discusses how to recognize the most common speech, language, and listening problems, when to get help for your child, where to go for help and what to ask, how the problem may affect your child academically, socially, and at home, and tips for helping your child at home.

Harris, S. Siblings of Children with Autism: A Guide for Families. A guide to understanding sibling relationships and the affects that autism can have on these relationships. It offers suggestions about what families can do to support their other children as they cope with the intensive needs of a child with autism. Dr. Harris offers advice/strategies for dealing with specific issues that are often troublesome for siblings and ideas for improving family communication, balancing personal and family time, and fostering interaction between children with autism and their siblings.

Powell, T & Gallagher, P. Brothers & Sisters: A Special Part of Exceptional Families. This book shares the joys and sorrows so familiar to exceptional families. Siblings speak openly about the challenges that they encounter in day to day interactions with their brother or sister. They discuss how these interactions affect them not only at home, but at school, in the community, and in their adult lives. This book explores issues such as effective listening, sibling adjustment, family oriented services, and innovative teaching and counseling programs. This guide also includes a list of parental and sibling strategies.

      
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Fisher, G. & Cummings, R. The Survival Guide for Kids with LD. This book answers questions about why some people have learning disabilities (or learning differences), what happens when people with LD grow up, going to college if you are LD, etc. It has special sections that list learning resources for kids with LD, provides tips on home and homework, and lists organizations that can provide support.

Hallowell, Edward & Ratey, John. Answers to Distraction. Written by the authors of Driven to Distraction, this book answers the most frequently asked questions about ADHD.

Hallowell, E.M., & Ratey, J.J. Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood through Adulthood. A rich resource covering education, family perspectives, diagnosis and treatment, and subtypes of ADHD.

Ingersoll, B.D. & Goldstein, S. Attention Deficit Disorder and Learning Disabilities: Realities, Myths, and Controversial Treatments. Provides an overview of learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, and discusses various treatments and their effectiveness.

Koplewicz, H. S. It’s Nobody’s Fault: New Hope and Help for Difficult Children and Their Parents. Takes parents step-by-step through the process of pinpointing the nature of the child’s problem, from getting the right evaluation through the latest information on diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis.

McNamara, B. & McNamara F. Keys to Parenting a Child with a Learning Disability. Describes a course of action for parents, methods of special education, dealing with learning disabled children at home, friendships, etc.

Morris, L. R. Creative Play Activities for Children with Learning Disabilities: A Resource Book for Teachers and Parents. Provides 250 games and activities designed to help infants to 8 year olds with all types of disabilities grow through play. Each chapter focuses on a different activity theme.

Parker, H. The ADD Hyperactivity Workbook for Parents, Teachers, and Kids. Provides tips for parents, a story for children, guidelines for teachers, and discussion of medication and behavior modification.

Phelan, T.W. All About Attention Deficit Disorder: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment: Children and Adults. Provides information regarding symptoms, effects on school, work, home, and social life, and treatment.

      
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Brazleton, T. B. Touchpoints, the Essential Reference: Your Child’s Emotional and Behavioral Development. Provides information on child development from a physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral point of view. Help’s parents understand their child’s behavior and prevent future problems. Includes many topics/issues faced by families from conception through age six.

Church, E. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Preschool -- But Didn’t Know Whom to Ask. Discusses different types of preschool programs, what to look for, what to expect during a typical day, etc.

Philadelphia Child Guidance Center. Your Child’s Emotional Health: The Middle Years. "The essential guide to every facet of a child’s psychological and mental development, from age six to age thirteen". Provides a timeline of growth and development and discusses important issues that parents deal with such as discipline, fear, sibling rivalry, chores, school, friends, etc. Explains how to distinguish normal from troubled behavior.

Scholastic Books. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Kindergarten -- But Didn’t Know Whom to Ask. Presents answers to twenty common questions about kindergarten programs.

Yasgur, B. Good-bye Diapers. Gives tips on toilet training without stress and frustration or tears. Answers questions that parents have about toilet training such as: Is it too soon to start? Is it taking too long? What should I do when he/she has an "accident?"

      
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Calkins, L. Raising Lifelong Learners: A Parent’s Guide. Discusses how everyday learning, learning that happens in the kitchen, living room, dining room, and play room, contributes to the development of life long learners. Talks about developing reading and writing skills, study habits, and the importance of parent involvement.

Canter, L. What to do When Your Child Hates to Read! Motivating the Reluctant Reader. Provides strategies to help your child look forward to daily reading time at home, make the most of the public library, improve speaking and writing skills through reading, and more!

Carroll, D. Teaching Your Children Life Skills. Talks about how parents can use everyday situations to teach lessons that will last a lifetime. Discusses concrete ways to build resourcefulness, patience, and self-reliance. Talks about how to teach good manners and values without lecturing or nagging. Discusses how chores, parties, shopping trips, vacations and other situations can offer opportunities for learning important practical skills.

Cole, Joanna & Calmenson, Stephanie. Fun on the Run: Travel Games and Songs. This book provides a variety of word games, guessing games, classic sing-along songs, license plate games and more.

Ellson, Shella & Gray, Judith. 365 Afterschool Activities: TV Free Fun Anytime for Children Ages 7-12. Filled with engaging and fun activities that will spur the imagination, keep kids playing, and help them be creative.

Faber, A. & Mazlish, E. How to Talk so Kids Can Learn at Home and in School. Demonstrates how parents and teachers can join forces to inspire children to be self-directed, self-disciplined, and responsive to learning. Shows how to help children handle the everyday problems that can interfere with learning.

Kirshbaum, R. Parent Power: 90 Winning Ways to Be Involved and Help Your Child Get the Most out of School. Includes sample forms, letters, and checklists that can be adapted for use in any situation. Provides descriptions of sensible activities and a list of helpful readings and organizations.

Kropf, P. Raising a Reader. Includes strategies for reading to your child from birth to the teenage years, using games and storytelling to make reading fun, and overcoming reading slumps. Explains the importance of parents to their child’s reading progress.

Lipson, E. The New York Times: Parent’s Guide to the Best Books for Children. Provides a listing of over 1,200 books. Special indexes make it easy for grandparents and parents to match the right book to the right child. A brief description is provided for each book and titles are organized according to many different topics.

Manolson, A. with Ward, B. & Dodington, N. You Make the Difference in Helping Your Child Learn. Practical ideas and activities to help parents and children connect in ways that foster children’s self-esteem and language learning.

National Association of School Psychologists. Solve Your Child’s School Related Problems. Provides clear definitions of several different school related issues, shows parents how to assess possible problems, explains at-home solutions, and provides advice on when professional help may be necessary.

Schwartz, S. & Heller-Miller, J.E. The New Language of Toys: Teaching Communication Skills to Children with Special Needs: A Guide for Parents and Teachers. Demonstrates to parents and teachers how to use toys and other play activities to facilitate a child’s language learning development. Provides guidelines to help parents and teachers choose the toys each child would be most satisfied playing with and most prepared to learn from.

Silberg, Jackie. 500 Five Minute Games: Quick and Easy Activities for 3-6 Year Olds. This book provides counting games, guessing games, alphabet games, songs, and fun ideas for learning. The ideas are organized by theme and designed to capture the enthusiasm of young children.

Sparling, J. & Lewis, I. Learningames for the First Three Years. A collection of 100 easily conducted activities for an adult to share with a very young child. Provides a description of the activity, materials needed, expected behaviors of the child, and the goals of the activity.

Williams, W. The Reluctant Reader: How to Get and Keep Kids Reading. Shows how to uncover the causes of reluctant reading and put in place strategies to get your child reading.

      
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Canter, L. Homework without Tears: A Parent’s Guide for Motivating Children to do Homework and to Succeed in School. A program that provides parents with a systematic approach to ending the nightly battles over homework and to motivating their children to succeed academically.

Canter, L. Help It’s Homework Time: Improving Your Child’s Homework Habits. Offers strategies to turn homework time into an important, shared experience in your child’s education and personal growth.

Sonna, L. The Homework Solution: Getting Kids to do Their Homework. Provides strategies for recognizing homework problems, getting the family involved, working with teachers, giving praise, avoiding conflict, knowing how and when to give help with homework, etc.

      
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Arnold, S. No More Bedwetting: How to Help Your Child Stay Dry. Explains how almost all childhood bedwetting can be controlled.

Borba, M. Parents Do Make a Difference: How to Raise Kids with Solid Character, Strong Minds, and Caring Hearts. This book outlines strategies for teaching children eight indispensable skills: self-confidence, self-awareness, communication, problem solving, getting along, goal setting, perseverance, and empathy. It provides step by step advice, practical ideas, and real life examples.

Canter, L. Managing the Morning Rush: Shaping Up Your Family’s Morning Routine. Provides strategies for minimizing stress during the morning "rush hour". Helps to instill responsibility and pride in your children and creates a smooth way to start the day.

Canter, L. Surviving Sibling Rivalry: Helping Brothers and Sisters Get Along. Provides strategies to create a positive, respectful family environment, how to decide when to intervene to solve a problem between siblings, etc.

Crary, E. & Casebolt, P. Pick Up Your Socks… and Other Skills Growing Children Need! A Practical Guide to Raising Responsible Children. This book offers strategies for assisting children to develop independence for various types of responsibility, e.g., household chores, homework, self-care, etc. It describes the developmental stages or levels of responsibility, discusses learning styles/differences, and discusses ways to build skills for responsibility.

Ezzo, Gary & Bucknam, Robert. Child Wise: Parenting Your Child from Three to Seven Years. This book offers suggestions to help parents raise emotionally balanced, intellectually assertive, and morally sensible children.

Faber, Adele & Mazlish, Elaine. Siblings without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together so You Can Live, Too. This book guides the way to peace and tranquility in a humorous and compassionate manner. It provides easy to understand stories that will make life easier for both siblings and their parents.

Ferber, R. Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems. Strategies for handling bedtime issues such as refusing to go to bed, restlessness and insomnia, night terrors, bedwetting, colic and other medical problems, head banging and body rocking.

Gottman, J. Raising an Emotionally, Intelligent Child: The Heart of Parenting. A guide to teaching children to understand and regulate their emotional world. Helps parents to listen empathetically and validate a child’s feelings. Offers strategies to help a child come up with an appropriate way to solve a problem or deal with an upsetting issue or situation.

Huntley, R. The Sleep Book for Tired Parents: Help for Solving Children’s Sleep Problems. This book discusses and offers tips to address common sleep problems such as frequent waking, difficulty falling asleep, difficulty sleeping alone, nightmares, sleep terrors, etc. It offers a varied of options to try in order to alter sleep patterns.

Schaefer, C. & DiGeronimo. Winning Bedtime Battles: How to Help Your Child Develop Good Sleep Habits. Teaches parents how to put their children to bed without arguing, yelling, or threatening. Discusses ways to find out why children resist going to sleep and how to use that information to develop healthy sleep habits.

Swedo, S. & Leonard, H. Is It "Just a Phase"?: How to Tell Common Childhood Phases from More Serious Problems. Includes topics such as thumb-sucking, bed-wetting, separation problems, nighttime fears, eating problems, and more.

Thomson, John. Natural Childhood. This book offers practical exercises in listening, games and activities for the whole family, projects in creative and cooperative play, etc.

Weston, D.C. & Weston M. S. Playwise: 365 Fun-Filled Activities for Building Character, Conscience, and Emotional Intelligence in Children. Creative and entertaining activities to help instill basic virtues and emotional intelligence in children.

Young, B. B. Stress and Your Child: Helping Kids Cope with the Strains and Pressures of Life. This book helps parents understand the pressures that their children face and explores the essential ways to reduce, manage, and prevent stress from birth to age twenty. Discusses how to recognize the physical and emotional signs of stress, how to understand school related stress, including social pressures, how parental stress affects children, and how to minimize stress.

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