Social Science Kids

It’s time to change the conversation—about work, life, and “balance.” Work and life are inextricably, intimately intertwined. We need to celebrate what we do give our children—even and especially in moments of imbalance—rather than apologizing for what we don’t. In this way, we can model for our children how we use our talents to help others and raise awareness about the issues closest to our hearts.

Parenting has never been the easiest job in the world, but with all the parenting advice out there, it's hard not to become bewildered. Today everybody has a different method for dealing with the madness. And who's to say one method is better than another? How do you choose? The truth is that whatever drumbeat you march to, all parents would agree that we just want our kids to be happy. But in the face of all the many parenting theories out there, happiness feels like it has become incidental.

In Keeping the Kids All Right, Barak Lurie shows conservative parents how to keep their kids conservative without homeschooling, and without quarantining kids from TV, friends, social media, their Uncle Eddie, or any other outside force. As he puts it, “your kids will remain unphased, like a Hurricane Hunter plane going through a category 5 hurricane.”

Over the past decade, educational instruction has become increasingly digitized as districts rush to dole out laptops and iPads to every student. Yet the most important question, “Is this what is best for students?” is glossed over. Veteran teachers Joe Clement and Matt Miles have seen firsthand how damaging technology overuse and misuse has been to our kids. On a mission to educate and empower parents, they show how screen saturation at home and school has created a wide range of cognitive and social deficits in our young people.

There is a famous cave located just outside of Spooksville. A lot of stories surround the dark place: scary ones as well as exciting ones. Adam decides to explore the cave with his friends, Watch, Sally, and Cindy. But the moment they go into the cave, the entrance closes behind them. They are trapped. In the dark. They walk deeper into the cave, frantically searching for a way out. The batteries in their flashlights begin to run low. Then they realize something is following them. Something that has been in the cave for a long time. Something big, black…and hungry.

Auggie and his magical companions are tending to the Fabled Stables when the building shakes and shudders to make room for a new arrival: the Tattle-Tail. Auggie and friends travel through the portal to a town called Rainbow’s End in search of this mysterious creature. Auggie assumes that the Tattle-Tail is in danger, but he learns that it’s actually the town that needs rescuing...from an infestation of Tattle-Tails!

After the death of his brother and the sudden end of his marriage, and after his ex-wife moved to another state leaving him alone with their two young children, Dan Glick embarked on single fatherhood in an unusual way: he took his kids on a journey around the world. The idea was to go see some of the world's rare life forms before they disappeared from the planet, and to do it before the kids themselves would grow up and chart their own paths.

Sociologist Margaret A. Hagerman zeroes in on affluent white kids to observe how they make sense of privilege, unequal educational opportunities, and police violence. In fascinating detail, Hagerman considers the role that they and their families play in the reproduction of racism and racial inequality in America. White Kids, based on two years of research involving in-depth interviews with white kids and their families, is a clear-eyed and sometimes shocking account of how white kids learn about race.

Nobody likes to be in an awkward moment of silence where everyone is just sitting at the table and doesn’t know what to talk about. That’s exactly when your trivia knowledge comes to play. Impress your friends with some insane facts, and you will find yourself in a heavy discussion within a few seconds. Not only will you feel like the smartest person in the room, but also will everyone be excited to enjoy your company as you always know something interesting to talk about.

In this practical guide, developmental psychologist (and mother of two) Christia Spears Brown uses science-based research to show how over-dependence on gender can limit kids, making it harder for them to develop into unique individuals. With a humorous, fresh, and accessible perspective, Parenting Beyond Pink & Blue addresses all the issues that contemporary parents should consider - from gender-segregated birthday parties and schools to sports, sexualization, and emotional intelligence.

If we judge the West by the state of its families, the West is sick. Millions of children barely see their parents, or for only a few minutes a day. One in two families break down, for better or worse. The casualties throng the family courts. Our maladjusted system has made the ideal of 'mom' and 'dad' - i.e. a loving, constant, adult presence in a child's infancy - a rarity. To speak of the 'maternal instinct' still elicits scorn or embarrassment from some feminists, who continue to mock 'holy motherhood'.

Kid Curry has been portrayed as a cold-blooded killer, without any compassion or conscience, and possessed of limited intelligence. Curry indeed was a dangerous man with a violent temperament, which was aggravated by alcoholic drink. Mark Smokov has researched extensively in areas significant to Curry's story and corrects the many false statements that have been written about him in the past. Curry was a cunning outlaw who planned and executed robberies.

Whatever became of the youth of the 60s, the turbulent era of sex, drugs and rock & roll? Kid Me Not, a new collection of intimate stories by women from the first generation ever to have access to The Pill, offers a unique perspective on the decade before Roe v. Wade, when free love wasn't always free. As the women's movement spread, these women faced a future of extraordinary possibilities possibilities seen by today's youth as commonplace.

In the early 2000s, Judge Mark Ciavarella and Judge Michael Conahan of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania were known as no-nonsense judges. Juveniles who showed up in their courtrooms faced harsh words and even harsher sentencing. In the post-Columbine era, many people believed that was just what the county needed to ensure its children and teens stayed on the straight and narrow path. But as more and more children faced shocking sentences for seemingly benign crimes, and a newly built for-profit detention center filled up further and further, a sinister pattern of abuses and bribery emerged.

Brooke Hauser takes us deep inside a unique New York City high school over the course of a year as she follows diverse newcomers whose lives are at once ordinary and extraordinary, international headlines brought to life. No native English-speaking students attend the International High School, and more than twenty-eight languages fill the halls.

Parents everywhere want their children to be happy and do well. Yet how parents seek to achieve this ambition varies enormously. Through personal anecdotes and original research, Matthias Doepke and Fabrizio Zilibotti reveal that in countries with increasing economic inequality, such as the United States, parents push harder to ensure their children have a path to security and success.

The mother of a bullied first grader, popular blogger Carrie Goldman's inspiring true story triggered an outpouring of support from online communities around the world. In Bullied, she gives us a guide to the crucial lessons and actionable guidance she's learned about how to stop bullying before it starts. It is a book born from Goldman's post about the ridicule her daughter suffered from bringing a Star Wars thermos to school.

Parenting for a Digital Future moves beyond the panicky headlines to offer a deeply researched exploration of what it means to parent in a period of significant social and technological change.

The heir to the Land should be strong. Fierce. Ruthless. At least, that’s what Beau’s father has been telling him his whole life, since Beau is the exact opposite of what the heir should be. With little control over his future, Beau is kept locked away, just another pawn in his father’s quest for ultimate power. That is, until Beau meets a girl who shows him the secrets his father has kept hidden.

Nicola Berry and her friends have barely caught their breath from their last trip to space when they are called on another intergalactic adventure! This time, they're on their way to Shobble, a beautiful snowy rainbow planet where nothing bad ever happens - or so they say. It turns out there is trouble brewing beneath this glittery exterior, and Nicola is put in a tough position. Should she risk defying the planet's dangerous commander-in-chief to help the people of Shobble?