15 Great Parenting Books You Need on Your Reading List

New year, new reading list. Here are the top 15 parenting books recommended by the Happy Sensitive Kids Community. Be sure to put these parenting books on your reading list for this year!

1 The Whole-Brain Child

Neuropsychiatrist Daniel J Siegel and parenting expert Tina Payne Bryson wrote The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind.

Without a doubt, this book is one of my favourite inspirational parenting books. I read it and light bulbs popped on all over the place!

If you read this book with your highly sensitive child in mind I promise you will get an incredible amount of strength out of this book.

2 The Strength Switch: How The New Science of Strength-Based Parenting Can Help Your Child and Your Teen to Flourish

This book, written by Lea Waters, focuses on your child’s strengths. Rather than trying to correct their weaknesses. And that is a huge difference. This approach improves a child’s self-esteem and in turn, is a valuable potential tool in our parenting kit to counteract depression and anxiety in our children.

“As parents, we often obsess about fixing our children’s weaknesses and neglect the importance of developing their strengths. This book is full of concrete ideas on how to change that.”
—Adam Grant, PhD, New York Times–bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take

3 How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk

You are probably familiar with this book. It’s, in the words of the Boston Globe, a parenting bible. If you are not familiar then now is the perfect time to add this parenting book gem to your reading list.

How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by communication experts Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish will help you effectively communicate with your children. It’s as simple as that.

4 The Bonsai Child

The Bonsai Child by Judith Locke is about the impact of high effort parenting on children. The author describes that by overparenting we are creating bonsai children incapable of coping in the real world.

I have not read this one so I am interested to hear other’s thoughts!

5 The Highly Sensitive Child

The Highly Sensitive Child is Elaine Aron’s bible on raising highly sensitive children. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. If you are raising, caring for or teaching a highly sensitive child and only read one book this year then read this one.

6 The Baby Book by Dr Sears

The Happy Sensitive Kids community mentioned The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two by Dr Sears a couple of times.

It’s a bestseller. Millions of parents have owned this book.

From birth up to age two this book is a practical companion for any new parent.

7 No-Drama Discipline

No-Drama Discipline: The Whole-Brain Way to Calm the Chaos and Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind is written by the same authors as The Whole Brain Child (see number 1 in this list).

This book guides parents to deal with meltdowns, tantrums and tears in a different way. It helps parents look at their own discipline approach and adapt it so that you can navigate your child through their emotions. It is, once again, about more effective communication with your children.

8 The Explosive Child

Or to give it its full title: The Explosive Child, The: A New Approach For Understanding And Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children.

If your child reacts to daily situations with an extreme attitude or frustration then this is a book for your list. If you have tried all the other strategies then maybe it’s time for a new approach. Explosive children need help learning flexibility and problem solving. And this book can help you do just that.

9 Unconditional Parenting

Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason by Alfie Kohn is about working with children instead of trying to control their behaviour. It’s about letting children see that screwing up doesn’t matter, we love them unconditionally.

This is now securely on my reading list.

10 The Conscious Parent

The Conscious Parent: Transforming Ourselves, Empowering Our Children by Dr. Shefali Tsabary is a philosophical guide to take with you on your parenting journey. Rather than a how-to parenting book. Potentially life changing!

11 Parenting From the Inside Out

Parenting from the Inside Out: How a Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You Raise Children Who Thrive is written by early childhood expert Mary Hartzell and no other than Daniel J. Siegel. Again. This is the third time I have mentioned a book of his on this list alone.

In short, Daniel J. Siegel is an author that resonates with the Happy Sensitive Kids community.

This book is about understanding your own life stories. So that you may be a better parent.

12 The Montessori Toddler

The Montessori Toddler: A Parent’s Guide to Raising a Curious and Responsible Human Being is a best seller when it comes to parenting books. The author is Simone Davies. This book is based on five principles of the Montessori approach to parenting and educating a child.

13 Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves

Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves: Transforming parent-child relationships from reaction and struggle to freedom, power and joy by Naomi Aldort.

This is a book of real life stories, all with the aim of helping you respond differently to your child. It asks you to take a look at yourself and recognise your own weaknesses. It is another book about unconditional love instead of trying to control your child’s behaviour.

14 Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child

Dr. Marc Weissbluth is a leading pediatrician and in Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child he tackles the age old issue of sleep and kids.

If you are one of the many parents whose highly sensitive child has sleep problems then this is a book you can put on your list. We all know the importance of sleep. And we also all know how hard it can be to get a highly sensitive child to sleep.

This book has schedules and tips to help sleep training. I am curious to hear from more of you whether his tips help a highly sensitive child.

15 Rest, Play, Grow: Making Sense of Preschoolers (Or Anyone Who Acts Like One)

Well, this is a fun title! Rest, Play, Grow: Making Sense of Preschoolers (Or Anyone Who Acts Like One) by Deborah MacNamara attempts to take away a little of the mystery around preschool children. Why do toddlers behave as they do?

This book details a developmental approach to parenting, as opposed to a behavioural approach. Interestingly, this seems to be a popular theme in the books chosen by the Happy Sensitive Kids community.

Happy Reading

So there you have it, fifteen parenting books to add to your reading list this year. If any of you use Goodreads then I would love to connect.

If anyone is interested in the idea of a virtual parenting book club then get in touch!