If you’re the parent of a boy, Dr. Leonard Sax’s book Boys Adrift: Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men is required reading. A decade ago, Sax, a family physician with a doctorate in psychology, began to notice a distressing trend: Parents were concerned about their unmotivated, underachieving sons. In talking to teachers and parents across the country, he discovered that this was a national phenomenon that crosses social, racial and economic lines. In Boys Adrift, Sax investigates five factors that contribute to what is becoming a national epidemic. He looks at the way children are taught and the role that video games, prescription drugs and environmental estrogens play. He also notes the lack of male role models in the culture at large as a contributing factor. This is fascinating, often unsettling stuff. Fortunately, Dr. Sax offers a program for change. His important book gives a wholly original perspective on American boys in decline, and thankfully offers information to help reverse this trend.

Having integrated some of these philosophies into your parenting practice, you’re ready to entrust someone else with the task. Or are you? I’ve always likened child-raising to a wildlife catch-and-release program. You nurture, love and fiercely protect this little life, and then it’s time to send your beloved creature into the big, wide world. A terrifying prospect, made less so by Practical Wisdom for Parents: Demystifying the Preschool Years. Is my child ready for the transition? For that matter, am I? What can I do to prepare for it? These and other questions are addressed in the book by two highly qualified, respected authors. Nancy Schulman and Ellen Birnbaum are directors of one of the most prestigious preschools in the country, the 92nd Street Y Nursery School in New York. Together they have almost 60 years of experience with preschoolers and here offer sage advice about the 3 to 5 set. Any parent whose child has experienced separation anxiety or any parent who has herself walked around teary-eyed with that phantom-limb feeling after dropping her child at school will find comfort here. As anyone who’s tried to extricate a sobbing toddler from his leg knows, leaving a child at school can be a heart-wrenching experience for both of you. Whether discussing The Social Lives of Children or Developing Morals and Ethics, these authors are keen observers of kids and know what makes toddlers tick.

Once you’ve got the gear, it’s time to rear that beautiful baby of yours. Bright from the Start: The Simple, Science-Backed Way to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind from Birth to Age 3 offers practical ideas for parents on how to relate to these little people and help them thrive. Author Dr. Jill Stamm, co-founder of New Directions Institute for Infant Brain Development, with co-author Paula Spencer, teaches the ABCs of parenting: attention, bonding and communication. Of course, if parenting were as simple as A-B-C we wouldn’t need Dr. Stamm’s informative, thoroughly researched book. She translates cutting-edge neuroscience into practical advice for parents on how to engage with your baby in ways that promote growth and well-being. She offers helpful ideas for interactive play and ways of meeting a baby’s cognitive and emotional needs during these crucial years. Is this book essential to your parenting library? Stamm right, it is.

Let’s start at the very beginning with Baby Must-Haves: The Essential Guide to Everything from Cribs to Bibs. Parenting magazine has long been the voice of reason for moms and dads alike. Now, hooray, they are offering the ultimate, comprehensive resource for all your baby needs. Do you really have to have that wipes warmer? (Answer: no, but it would be nice.) Can you forgo that bulky activity saucer, or neglecta-tron as we fondly used to call it? (Answer: an emphatic NO, you cannot.) The editors of Parenting have it all covered, in a nice, soft fleecy blanket way. They’ve gathered information from the ultimate authorities, Moms All Over the Country, who know whereof they speak. This guide is packed, like an overstuffed diaper bag, with product lists, mom tips and checklists. It’s nothing short of a godsend.

Writing Motherhood: Tapping into Your Creativity as a Mother and a Writer by Lisa Garrigues, a workshop leader in memoir and personal narrative, offers an inspiring yet pragmatic approach to subject matter for writers who are also moms. While encouraging women to mine material from their early years as mothers pregnancy and birth, baby names and first words her focus is on giving women the sustained belief in themselves they will need to write at every stage of parenting. Garrigues reminds her readers that writing is the vehicle that will take you where you want to go, so that along the way you must often put down the book and pick up the pen. (And apropos of our subject, there’s also a chapter titled Mothering our Mothers, and two shorter pieces How Writers Write about Their Mothers and Every Day is Mother’s Day: A History of the Holiday. )

Women who are mothers writing about motherhood what better way to celebrate Mother’s Day than to read or share a book like that? One excellent example is Mother-Daughter Wisdom: Creating a Legacy of Physical and Emotional Health by best-selling author Dr. Christiane Northrup (Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom). Northrup points out a simple but profound truth: every woman is a daughter. She believes the mother-daughter bond, “in all its beauty, pain and complexity, forms the very foundation of a woman’s state of health.” Northrup likens the stages of a woman’s life to moving through a house, starting at the foundation and going upward. If a woman moves confidently from one room to the next, she builds a legacy of emotional and physical health, a guidepost for her daughter to follow. Failing to do so, however, getting stuck in one room or skipping one, often results in emotional or health-related problems. But she also maintains that despite the connectedness between mothers and daughters, each woman is on her own separate journey, responsible for “her own life, her own choices, her own happiness.” Mother-Daughter Wisdom offers a wealth of advice on health eating, exercise, self-esteem, moral decisions, money matters, sexuality and it’s a must-have on every woman’s shelf.

Linda Stankard is a mother and a daughter.

Holistic health care a natural approach to healing which considers both the mind and the body, the spiritual as well as the physical is surging in popularity, and childcare is no exception. For parents interested in exploring the possibilities, Natural Baby and Childcare: Practical Medical Advice and Holistic Wisdom for Raising Healthy Children from Birth to Adolescence is a comprehensive resource, a one-stop shop, for any question about how to care for children in a holistic way. This guide complements rather than challenges more traditional, mainstream parenting guides. Author Lauren Feder, M.D., offers natural cures for almost any disease or injury and covers a wide range of issues, from prenatal care to teething remedies for infants to acne treatments for teenagers. Parents with environmental concerns can read about alternatives to plastic diapers and products with potentially dangerous chemicals. Feder also addresses such timely and pressing issues as the link between vaccines and autism and the benefits of breast-feeding. This excellent reference can help moms and dads make the best decisions regarding the total health of their children.

Katherine Wyrick is a writer in Little Rock and the mother of two.

On the other hand . . . maybe parenting is more of an exact science than previously realized. The Science of Parenting by Margot Sunderland aims to show parents how current scientific research can help their child-rearing efforts. As Sunderland writes, It’s both awesome and sobering to know that as parents we have such a direct effect on the actual wiring and long-term chemical balance in our children’s brains. Yikes. Sunderland’s statement could very well strike terror in the hearts of parents, but this exhaustively researched tome is meant to inform, not frighten, and that’s what it does. There’s nary an anecdote or bit of personal recollection to be found in these pages, which makes this book distinctly different from the aforementioned guides. Sunderland is interested in the way one’s parenting style directly influences, on a psychological and emotional level, a child’s brain. It’s fascinating stuff, and any parent can benefit from Sunderland’s extensive research.

Though backed up by hard science, this accessible book is in part a how-to book, offering guidance on how to handle many types of parenting challenges. In the chapter Behaving Badly, Sunderland addresses not only what to do when children have tantrums but why children behave badly in the first place. This knowledge can equip parents with information that could help prevent bad behavior before it starts. The photos of children in various stages of different meltdowns (yes, there are different types of tantrums), will bring smiles of recognition to parents who’ve been caught in the maelstrom of a meltdown (and who hasn’t?).

The familiar DK format, textbook-like (in the best sense) with colorful, glossy pages and striking photos, makes this an easy book to flip through and read in fits and starts or during fits and tantrums. Katherine Wyrick is a writer in Little Rock and the mother of two.

Don’t let her list of credentials and accomplishments intimidate you. Sure, Jane Buckingham (author of The Modern Girl’s Guide to Life, based on her Style Network show of the same name) has it all: beauty, success, a fulfilling career and a happy family. But her writing style makes a mother feel like she’s talking to a funny, down-to-earth girlfriend. In The Modern Girl’s Guide to Motherhood, Buckingham strikes an empathetic tone as she offers frank and often funny advice on a variety of topics and practical solutions for common problems from birth to age four. A section on party ideas is particularly handy, succinct and right on the money. The author writes with flair and style on subjects ranging from the essential pre-baby shopping spree to the first play date. Her list of must-haves closely resembles Hobey’s in Working Gal’s Guide, proving that great parents think alike.

Trial and error is part of the process, but this informative, fun guide designated a Mod Mom Survival Guide will help make the trials less trying. Buckingham puts new mothers at ease with her insight into the oh-so-inexact science of parenting when she writes, You will make mistakes, and you will have regrets, but that’s just part of being a parent. Katherine Wyrick is a writer in Little Rock and the mother of two.

To work, or not to work. That is the question for many a modern mama. In The Working Gal’s Guide to Babyville: Your Must-Have Manual for Life with Baby, author Paige Hobey avoids taking sides in this ongoing cultural debate, but offers a guide for gals who’ve made the choice to return to work post-baby. Hobey, a contributing writer for Parenting and Chicago Parent, has two young children of her own and has obviously made the transition successfully herself. She teams with New York-based pediatrician (and working mom) Dr. Allison Nied to give advice on basics such as newborn care, childcare options, sleeping and eating. Not only that, but Hobey gives mothers a detailed map for re-entry into the world of work. Peppered with anecdotes, this guide has a friendly, from-one-mom-to-another conversational tone. Quick Tips from Dr. Nied appear throughout and deliver bite-size morsels of wisdom from a pediatrician’s perspective.

There’s not a lot of new information here, but Working Gal’s Guide is chock-full of sound advice on a very timely topic. Most helpful are the appendixes in the back which include Baby-Sitter/Nanny Interview Questions and Contracts and Your New Baby Shopping List. Katherine Wyrick is a writer in Little Rock and the mother of two.

Getting good grades, playing sports and participating in school clubs are all part of the high school experience. But what happens when a teenager’s need to be at the top of the class becomes a perfectionist workaholism? Author Alexandra Robbins reports on the disturbing rise of overachiever culture in The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids.

Robbins’ compelling investigative journalism traces a year in the lives of several overachieving teens at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland, a public high school often touted as one of the best in the nation. These are teens who skip lunch to squeeze in one more Advanced Placement class, who continue to play competitive sports while seriously injured, and whose extreme stress leads to unnaturally thinning hair, panic attacks and eating disorders. Increasingly, the author shows, these teens are becoming the norm rather than the exception.

Robbins also explores the repercussions of an overachiever culture, from a spike in suicide rates among teens, chronic sleep deprivation, and abuse of Adderall and Ritalin by non-ADD teens to rampant cheating, loss of childhood, and academic competition starting as early as preschool. She finds irony in today’s hypertesting education systems that compromise the quality of education and in helicopter parents, so named for hovering over their children, who leave students so sheltered that they lack social skills and initiative.

The author concludes this eye-opener with suggestions for high schools, colleges, counselors, parents and students alike on ways to break the addictive, abusive cycle of extreme perfectionism. Angela Leeper is an educational consultant and freelance writer in Wake Forest, North Carolina.