Rating: 
Summary: For adolescent daughters, not little girls
Review: ... and while it may be a quality item, it is definitely geared toward adolescents, not younger children. There was nothing that addressed the needs of dads for girls under the age of ten.
Rating: 
Summary: not just for dads
Review: Excellent protray of fathers and thoughts. It's not just for dads. It's pretty important for readers to do cross reading, my husband has actually sat down and read a few of my favorites so I bought this one for him and read it too. We also enjoyed The Mom Book, by Stacy M. DeBroff. It has 4,278 tips on parenting. Why not buy them both as we did. Thank you to both authors for a job well done.
Rating: 
Summary: The book is fabulous and a must for dads with daughters
Review: I'd also recommend it for daughters with dads, mom's with husbands, brothers with sisters, uncles, stepparents, and so on.... In a sentence, the book offers intelligent and thoughtful insights as well as practical suggestions on how to think about one's role as a parent and how to explore what a father can offer his daughter if he really sets his mind to the loving task of raising her.The book's foundation is the author's inspiring vision of fatherhood. This vision involves the dad who might on Monday write a letter to a company protesting an ad that promotes unhealthy body images for girls. On Tuesday he patiently sits at the dining room table and listens to his daughter describe a problem, while limiting himself to facilitating her effort to solve or resolve it on her own. On Wednesday, he gets dirty with her playing soccer. On Thursday, they talk about boys and he shares, with honesty and openness the good and bad she can anticipate in her relationships. On Friday, he swallows the feeling of rejection when she's angry with him and won't even say why, and he ends up seeking advice from another dad he's friends with. On Saturday, his patience pays off and he accepts her invitation to help out in a volunteer activity she's organizing. And on Sunday he asks her to help in return, fixing a leak under the kitchen sink with him--making sure she learns how the plumbing works in the process. Not every dad does all of this, but what a great world it would be if they did and this book can help more fathers assess themselves and turn more of their parenting potential into a reality. -Gary
Rating:
Summary: A Life-Changing Work
Review: If this book ever achieves the popularity it so richly deserves, there is no doubt in my mind that it will be trashed by some groups in the U.S. society. If that level of acceptance is ever achieved remember to read it before you judge or accept someone elses judgement of it. This book will challenge you. It will force you to evaluate your place as a father, and your place in the world as it affects girls. As the author states in the Foreword, it may offend. It is not written from a Christian perspective and it is not written from Atheistic perspective. It is about exactly what the title states. There are two things that are almost universally true for all fathers of daughters. 1.) We don't talk to anyone at all about our jobs as parents. 2.) We did not grow up as girls (Ok, this one is universally true.) What Joe Kelly does in Dads and Daughters is point out that these are two of several major hurdles we must accomplish to be good dads. Luckily, he also provides great information on how to overcome these hurdles. Covering the first hurdle brings surprises. In his research, Joe interviewed dozens of fathers from all walks of life. In that research he found common themes. Themes that each of us as dads of daughters know to be true for us, but have no idea that there is another soul on the planet with the same concerns, the same desires, the same stories. He points to our lack of father to father communication and says, "here are some ways to fix that." The second hurdle is obvious once stated but not so clear until then. We grew up as boys, and generally find girls as perplexing as we did when we were their age. That is a problem for a grown up boy given the task of raising a girl. The tools that our fathers used with us (if we were lucky enough to have that father) probably will not work with your daughter. And quitting is not an option. (For what it's worth, you the humble reader may find that some of the techniques Kelly describes are just as useful with the grown up girl that is the mother of your daughter.) With Dads and Daughters, Kelly forces us to turn the light of understanding inward to see so many things that we already know, but forgot. Most of us imagine ourselves cleaning the shotgun when our daughter's beau comes a callin' yet almost none of us remember our own insecurities and true desire to find love when we were that age. Many of us have grown comfortable in the role of secondary parent; many of us have forgotten how important we are. It is incontrovertabile that your concern and love for your daughter brought you to look at the details of this book. What you may not realize is how important of a role you do have now, through her adolesence, and beyond. You may not realize what you need to be for your little princess. This book will help, and if you're like me it might re-awaken those feelings of unrestrained joy, love, and hope that you had the first time you saw her and realized, she was your daughter and you are her father.
Rating:
Summary: A Life-Changing Work
Review: If this book ever achieves the popularity it so richly deserves, there is no doubt in my mind that it will be trashed by some groups in the U.S. society. If that level of acceptance is ever achieved remember to read it before you judge or accept someone elses judgement of it. This book will challenge you. It will force you to evaluate your place as a father, and your place in the world as it affects girls. As the author states in the Foreword, it may offend. It is not written from a Christian perspective and it is not written from Atheistic perspective. It is about exactly what the title states. There are two things that are almost universally true for all fathers of daughters. 1.) We don't talk to anyone at all about our jobs as parents. 2.) We did not grow up as girls (Ok, this one is universally true.) What Joe Kelly does in Dads and Daughters is point out that these are two of several major hurdles we must accomplish to be good dads. Luckily, he also provides great information on how to overcome these hurdles. Covering the first hurdle brings surprises. In his research, Joe interviewed dozens of fathers from all walks of life. In that research he found common themes. Themes that each of us as dads of daughters know to be true for us, but have no idea that there is another soul on the planet with the same concerns, the same desires, the same stories. He points to our lack of father to father communication and says, "here are some ways to fix that." The second hurdle is obvious once stated but not so clear until then. We grew up as boys, and generally find girls as perplexing as we did when we were their age. That is a problem for a grown up boy given the task of raising a girl. The tools that our fathers used with us (if we were lucky enough to have that father) probably will not work with your daughter. And quitting is not an option. (For what it's worth, you the humble reader may find that some of the techniques Kelly describes are just as useful with the grown up girl that is the mother of your daughter.) With Dads and Daughters, Kelly forces us to turn the light of understanding inward to see so many things that we already know, but forgot. Most of us imagine ourselves cleaning the shotgun when our daughter's beau comes a callin' yet almost none of us remember our own insecurities and true desire to find love when we were that age. Many of us have grown comfortable in the role of secondary parent; many of us have forgotten how important we are. It is incontrovertabile that your concern and love for your daughter brought you to look at the details of this book. What you may not realize is how important of a role you do have now, through her adolesence, and beyond. You may not realize what you need to be for your little princess. This book will help, and if you're like me it might re-awaken those feelings of unrestrained joy, love, and hope that you had the first time you saw her and realized, she was your daughter and you are her father.
Rating:
Summary: Healing Words & Wisdom
Review: Joe Kelley offers a refreshing look at relationships between dads and daughters--a topic often ignored. His connection to eating disorders and self-esteem is based not only in research but experience. Kelley is often found at conferences focused on eating disorder treatment and prevention. His book is based on experience & science. Unfortunatley one reviewer did not appreciate the value of his book which includes updated research and figures for eating disorder prevelance. For those in the education field, Kelley offers a perspective similar to such philosphers & eduactors as Friere, Horton & Kozol. A must read for dads, daughters & those who work with kids.
Rating:
Summary: Healing Words & Wisdom
Review: Joe Kelley offers a refreshing look at relationships between dads and daughters--a topic often ignored. His connection to eating disorders and self-esteem is based not only in research but experience. Kelley is often found at conferences focused on eating disorder treatment and prevention. His book is based on experience & science. Unfortunatley one reviewer did not appreciate the value of his book which includes updated research and figures for eating disorder prevelance. For those in the education field, Kelley offers a perspective similar to such philosphers & eduactors as Friere, Horton & Kozol. A must read for dads, daughters & those who work with kids.
Rating:
Summary: News dads can use
Review: Joe Kelly has been in the trenches for 20 years as the father of twin girls and he brings great news: dads can experience unconditional love while raising strong, healthy daughters. His book is jammed with moving insights and concrete tools for being the best dad possible. I wish my father had read this book when I was young, but my husband will definitely have a copy on his nightstand from now on. And I'm betting he'll enjoy reading Kelly's clear, lively prose.
Rating: 
Summary: some good, some bad
Review: This book has some very good advice about knowing when to speak up and knowing when to be silent when your daughter is expressing herself. It is also frought with some very bad advice about allowing "experimentation" in your daughters life.
I was confused about how one section deals with teaching girls that their self worth is not tied up in their bodies, then giving dads the advice to allow a daughter to wear provocative clothing. I quote, "wearing sexy clothing is a normal adolescent behavior". Some daughters might be all the better for allowing boys to ogle them, but mine better keep the receipt.
I say no thank you to most of the advice given in this book. Dad isn't meant to be a passive listener and enabler. Sometimes, Dad is supposed to put his foot down and say that some things are unnacceptable.
Rating:
Summary: Real father's voices -- essential reading
Review: This is a powerful book. The anonymous reviewer from Lafayette, CA seems to have missed the point of the book; the author states clearly right at the start that he is not an academic, a therapist or a researcher. He bases his reflections on the voices of REAL dads and his own 20+ years experience as a father. As Kelly states, "fathering is more art than science." The anonymous reviewer from Lafayette (unintentionally?) reveals a major problem in material on the daughter-father relationship by referring us to a pamphlet about "parents." Such information is obviously valuable, but so is Dads and Daughters - finally a book by a father, filled with other fathers' voices, about this consistently neglected relationship. Kelly's book fills a glaring gap.
Dads and Daughters is a MUST read for any man with a daughter, and for any woman who ever had a father. It is robust proof of the power of fathers' words - a power that developmental psychology or other science just doesn't provide in the same way.
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