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Rating: 
Summary: A Necessary Collection
Review: As my daughter grew from a baby to a toddler, I found myself as confused about parenting books as I was about her clothing size. No books seemed to fit my needs: I no longer wanted the "new parent hand holding" books, but I didn't feel ready to approach this new stage without the comfort I've always derived from reading thoughtful -- and thought-provoking -- essays about personal experiences similar to my own. When a friend told me about "Room To Grow" I was relieved; when I started to read the essays, I was ecstatic. This book was exactly what I was looking for: smart, moving pieces about the kind of parenting issues the parenting books ignore. I am certain I'll come back to this book again and again as my daughter grows older. Every parent should know about this collection.
Rating:
Summary: A Necessary Collection
Review: As my daughter grew from a baby to a toddler, I found myself as confused about parenting books as I was about her clothing size. No books seemed to fit my needs: I no longer wanted the "new parent hand holding" books, but I didn't feel ready to approach this new stage without the comfort I've always derived from reading thoughtful -- and thought-provoking -- essays about personal experiences similar to my own. When a friend told me about "Room To Grow" I was relieved; when I started to read the essays, I was ecstatic. This book was exactly what I was looking for: smart, moving pieces about the kind of parenting issues the parenting books ignore. I am certain I'll come back to this book again and again as my daughter grows older. Every parent should know about this collection.
Rating:
Summary: A Necessary Collection
Review: As my daughter grew from a baby to a toddler, I found myself as confused about parenting books as I was about her clothing size. No books seemed to fit my needs: I no longer wanted the "new parent hand holding" books, but I didn't feel ready to approach this new stage without the comfort I've always derived from reading thoughtful -- and thought-provoking -- essays about personal experiences similar to my own. When a friend told me about "Room To Grow" I was relieved; when I started to read the essays, I was ecstatic. This book was exactly what I was looking for: smart, moving pieces about the kind of parenting issues the parenting books ignore. I am certain I'll come back to this book again and again as my daughter grows older. Every parent should know about this collection.
Rating: 
Summary: insightful collection of essays on parenting young children
Review: I had really enjoyed the same editor's volume of essays on parenting in the first year, called 'Child of Mine', and so I was anxious to read this book, which contains essays by various authors on their experiences in raising children a little older (generally between two and ten years of age).At first I was slightly disappointed because a number of the essays didn't seem to be of immediate interest to me personally, and because this collection did not seem to have the same coherence as the first. But after I began to read, I found myself making little notes of agreement in the margins, underlining sympathetic or insightful passages, and smiling at the experiences similar to my own. Even when an essay was not immediately relevant to me (such as the selections on adoption and raising twins), I found instances of shared experience with the writers, who seemed to be as awestruck and profoundly affected as me by their adventures in parenting. Oddly enough, in reviewing the book, I found I most enjoyed the selections by the male contributors -- delighted at similarities of common experience and enlightened by the differences -- often told with great humor. So this book also helped me to appreciate the unique experience of fatherhood. Very enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: excellent stories - but not as good as 'Child of Mine'
Review: I read 'Child of Mine' during my pregnancy many times and since then many many times over. I expected to find the same joy in reading this new collection of parenting stories, but although most are well written, sometimes poignant, definitely moving - I did not find that as a whole the book worked well. I think the editor was perhaps a liitle confused as to the true focus of the book, and as a result the stories veer off to strange directions, not really connected and not giving a satisfying feeling at the end of the reading. Still I have to say that I am glad I read it as each tale gives a new perspective omn the daunting joy that is parenthhood, and I do recommend it as an addition to Child of Mine.
Rating: 
Summary: An extraordinary collection--perfect for Father's Day
Review: Some of our most respected authors, along with some talented new voices, share their experiences as parents of children between the ages of two and ten-the period when our children are young and wholly dependent, before they have established separate identities. Each of these entertaining and evocative essays focuses on one central issue about raising young children. This collection is not an instruction book on how to parent, but instead an exploration of the issues that surround this period in every parent's life. Room to Grow is a kaleidoscope of the early years of childhood, revealing new patterns and yielding insights at each turn. Its recurring motifs include how we as parents cope with loss: the giving up of our own youth, the loss of personal freedom when we have children, the loss of our children's innocence as they grow up. It is about fear-of giving our children to the world, of losing our children, of becoming irrelevant to them. It is about the inevitable sense that we as parents are never doing enough, giving enough, that our children will always consume the available space, whatever that space is. It is about our delight in watching them grow into cognizant beings, with their own particular opinions and tastes and needs, which may be quite different from our own. The writers have molded these themes into more concrete topics-such as choosing to have only one child, the complexities of being a stay-at-home dad, the urge to avoid making the mistakes one's parents did, birth order and sibling rivalry, and giving one's children a sense of racial identity. Ultimately, with a balance of humor and pathos, lightness and intensity, these essays get to the core of modern parenthood. A remarkable exploration of the parenting experience, Room to Grow eloquently discloses those priceless moments of sheer amazement, wonder, closeness, and joy that parents encounter every day with their young children.
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