Wonderfully chaotic. This is how the authors of Mom Central generously describe the lives of typical parents. The first adjective is occasionally up for debate, but the second one is a perennially accurate description. Mom Central is a resource designed to create order from chaos. Bless them.

Lists are good, but lists only work when they can be found. Mom Central is essentially a books of lists just about every list a family will ever need permanently organized, color-coded, transportable, and updatable.

The authors created Mom Central when the disparity between business management and family management became all too frustratingly apparent. They sought to adapt the “organizational structure and proactive management systems” of their professional lives to the needs of their home lives. The most crucial material comes first: “Emergency and Medical.” Caregivers have immediate access to all pertinent information: family names and addresses; phone numbers for police, poison control, neighbors, pediatricians, etc. It includes “Permission to Treat” forms and charts for past and present medications and vaccinations.

Other headings and some of their highlights include “Children ∧ Family” (back-to-school shopping, homework planning, goal-setting); “Child Care” (finding a nanny, selecting a Day Care, information for sitters); “Grown Ups” (family history, safe deposit box, daily to-do list, birthdays, shopping lists); “Entertaining” (child and adult party planners, holidays); “Home, Car ∧ Pet” (capital improvements and repairs, safety and maintenance, warranty records, car information, pet care while away, whom to contact for utilities and services); “Travel” (planning for day trips and longer outings, packing).

Don’t let the number of headings be intimidating: The authors stress that Mom Central should help relieve stress. It’s designed to accommodate individual needs and personal organizational thresholds. Even if only one or two sections are used, life could be immeasurably simplified. Who couldn’t use a little more order and a little less chaos? By the way, Mom Central is an act of charity itself, but the authors take it a step further and donate part of the proceeds to charities benefiting women and children. Reviewed by Joanna Brichetto.

Television’s much-awarded broadcast reporter Cokie Roberts might intimidate us ordinary souls if she weren’t so personal, warm, and insightful. Her book, We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters part memoir, part social history demonstrates these qualities. Roberts’s title makes her chief point: no matter how political and social changes revise women’s lives, women’s nature remains the same.

“Women,” she says, “have always been multiple-minded.” Rather than regarding multiple-mindedness as a handicap, Roberts sees it as a strength. Women by necessity, she claims, will always focus on many things at once, jobs and family, professional life and personal life. Roberts, herself a highly successful professional woman, notes that “women are connected throughout time and regardless of place.” Our Mothers’ Daughters develops this theme in 13 chapters organized around women’s various roles. The anecdote-filled chapters illustrate women’s toughness, tenderness, and flexibility at home as well as in more public arenas. Chapters on “Sister,” “Aunt,” “Wife,” and “Mother/Daughter” draw on Roberts’s personal life. Daughter of Hale Boggs, the Louisiana congressman lost in a plane crash in Alaska, and Lindy Boggs, herself a member of Congress and now Ambassador to the Vatican, Cokie says “Politics is the family business.” “Sister,” a moving prose elegy, deals with Roberts’s sister Barbara’s death from cancer. “Mother/Daughter” praises her mother’s strength, wisdom, good sense, and sense of humor. When Roberts’s children were young, Grandma Lindy lived on Bourbon Street. “I used to jokingly chant [to my kids], ÔOver the hills and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go,’ as we tripped our way past the denizens of that naughty neighborhood.” “Aunt” registers appreciation of the network of southern women Roberts grew up in, while “Friend” expresses appreciation for the network of professional women that fostered Roberts’s career. For women’s more public roles, Roberts draws on experiences gleaned from her years as a reporter. “Politician” points out the importance of women being active in politics despite the difficult, sometimes tawdry, world politicians inhabit. “Consumer Advocate” profiles Esther Peterson, the woman responsible for truth-in-advertising package labeling. “First-Class Mechanic” chronicles the inspiring story of Eva Oliver of Baton Rouge, a mother who got off welfare and now counsels other women. “Civil Rights Activist” traces the career of 85-year-old Dorothy Height, President of the National Council of Negro Women. Roberts has unearthed fascinating tales of women in business, women in the service, women in reporting. She weaves them together in clear, informal prose well-spiked with her own warm personality.

Reviewed by Joanne Lewis Sears.

The Mozart Effect¨ For Children: Awakening Your Child’s Mind, Health, and Creativity with Music Want to help your child be a musical genius? Or simply a well-adjusted, musically exposed child? Much has been said in recent years about how classical music stimulates brain development in young children, leading not only to increased musical talent but to added math prowess and overall I.Q. as well.

Regardless of whether this is true (author Don Campbell believes wholeheartedly in what he has termed the “Mozart Effect”), who can argue with the benefits of introducing children to music and rhythm at an early age? Campbell, who wrote the best-selling The Mozart Effect about music’s power on the body, spirit, and intellect, now writes The Mozart Effect for Children, an informative guide for parents and educators. Whether you want to “crawl, reach and clap” with a toddler or create a musical sense of identity in a 10-year-old, you’ll find a symphony of suggestions, organized in various age-relevant chapters.

For instance, Campbell notes that for toddlers, language development in general often parallels that of musical ability. He suggests specific games and songs, not just Mozart, but everything from nursery rhymes to rock. Incorporating music into all sorts of daily activities “gives kids a chance to develop basic timing, coordination, creativity, and problem-solving skills,” Campbell explains.

Music is indeed an area I’d like to incorporate more into my own family life. Our 15-month twins are doing just as Campbell predicts, starting to sing as they form their first words. It’s a joy to watch how their little bodies respond to rhythm and dance. I plan to keep Campbell’s book as a reference for them and their older brother as well.

Campbell also gives plenty of fun suggestions for older children, such as “learning to the beat,” making spelling lessons more fun by practicing words to different rhythmic patterns. Several activities address learning to read: “try turning down the lights a bit and playing Mozart, Vivaldi, Scarlatti, or Bach softly in the background as your child reads aloud.” One father set the multiplication tables to music, with great success for his previously reluctant mathematician.

Regardless of your family’s musical knowledge or talents, The Mozart Effect for Children is full of easy, practical suggestions to help children excel in school and learn to fully appreciate music. So sing, dance, and clap to your heart’s delight! Everyone will be the better for it.

Alice Cary sings, dances, and claps from her home in Groton, Massachusetts.

With so many parenting resources out there these days, do you really need another one? In the case of Attachment Parenting, the answer is yes. The term attachment parenting was coined by pediatrician William Sears, and refers to a method of child-rearing that focuses on intuitive care of infants and children. In the introduction by Dr. Sears, the features of attachment parenting are described as the Ôbaby b’s’: birth bonding, breastfeeding, bedsharing (sleeping with your baby), babywearing (carrying your baby in a sling), and belief in the signal value of an infant’s cry. Granju and Kennedy explain in the first paragraphs that their book is fundamentally different from typical parenting books, particularly because this philosophy trusts that the parents in partnership with the child are the parenting experts. No one author, doctor, or other person can or should tell a parent exactly when their infant should sleep, eat, or even cry. In addition, many of the philosophical principles, such as responding quickly to an infant’s cries, run counter to those that permeate American parenting in the 20th century.

After defining attachment parenting in depth, Granju and Kennedy offer advice about how to prepare for the baby on the way and an attachment-style birth. Much of the rest of the book is devoted to the two most controversial aspects of attachment parenting: extended breastfeeding and sharing sleep. For those concerned that this style conflicts with working outside the home, Attachment Parenting spends a chapter addressing the issue, and even goes so far as to provide a template letter requesting the creation of a baby-friendly workplace.

Through the use of cross-cultural comparisons, anecdotal evidence, and excerpts by researchers, the authors present evidence that attachment parenting works in all types of families. It’s reassuring to read about the successful experiences of other parents and to learn how this parenting style has affected their lives and relationships with their children.

For both those familiar with attachment parenting and neophytes, some of the strongest aspects of the book are the comprehensive lists of like-minded publications and electronic media. News-groups, websites, magazines, and even other parenting books are referenced. Attachment Parenting is a must for those who plan to attachment parent.