I know the adage "Never judge a book by it's cover", and I probably should have remembered it when I chose this book to review. I was drawn to this book for two reasons. While I am technically not Jewish, I do have Jewish ancestors, and I've been fascinated by Jewish history; Since I'm also a parent, I figured a book on historical Jewish parenting practices was an all around win.
I was wrong.
The first thing every paper writing student learns is how to site sources, especially when evoking statics and analytical studies. While The author does site some of her sources, most of them remain blanketed in mystery.
While there is a token mention or two of Jewish parenting practices throughout history, the majority of this book reads, as one parents soapbox for defending her parenting choices. Personally I was irritated with the constant back and forth of the author's opinion during themes.
As she heaped judgement of parenting and lifestyle choices that differed from hers, she extolled the virtues of ignoring stereotypes and staying nonjudgmental.
That's not to say I didn't get anything from the book. Chapters five and six I found to be really encouraging, and the author discussed celebrating geekiness, exercising intelligence, and being involved in your child's education. I was rather disenchanted by the end of the book, when she summed everything up, by letting readers know that the only thing that really matters these days is household income, and how much you're willing to spend on your kids extra-curricular activities.
I feel like the majority of this book would have been better suited to a blog, or at the very least been touted as a vanity memoir.
I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.
