Bringing up a prodigy
 Josh Waitzkin the chess prodigy at the heart of the acclaimed book, "Searching for Bobby Fischer", has just signed his first deal for a book that´s not about chess. The tentatively titled "The Art of Learning", is an inspirational memoir-and-advice book, will so be published by Simon & Schuster´s Free Press. Josh Waitzkin now in his late 20s, Waitzkin is no longer a professional chess player, and is an expert at a form of tai chi known as tai chi push hands. The new book represented by his father Fred Waitzkin´s longtime agent, Amanda "Binky" Urban. It discusses the skills Waitzkin believes are essential to chess, to tai chi, and to most endeavors. It will be full of anecdotes from Waitzkin´s life and discussed such concepts as "having a beginner´s mind" and how to build mental stamina.
Josh Waitzkin was a champion chess player from childhood, and his story was chronicled by his father Fred Waitzkin in "Searching for Bobby Fischer" — and later made into a movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer".
Alone (at home) again, naturaly
 "Home-Alone America: The Hidden Toll of Day Care, Behavioral Drugs, and Other Parent Substitutes" whose jacket photograph shows Mom leaving for work in her power suit and pumps as Junior clings desperately to her ankle. That seems to label the book as another one hitting working mothers, blaming them for the ills of society and condemning them for putting their happiness above that of their children.
According to Mary Eberstadt the author of the book that focuses on conservative viewpoints. "This isn’t a finger-pointing book," she said. "It’s not a blaming book. It’s an attempt to deliver what I know to be an out-of-the-box examination of a serious social question. That question is, why do kids today have serious problems that their parents’ generation and their grandparents’ generation did not?" She presents disturbing statistics about the growth in the use of psychiatric drugs to treat attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity. And she includes familiar but still troubling figures on teen pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
Eberstadt’s book attempts to link these problems to absent parents. Obesity, she writes, is in large part the product of a lack of supervision when children return every afternoon to empty homes or are mollified by sugary snacks in day care or at after-school programs. She says so many children are medicated because parents spend less time with them, and therefore do not know how children really behave. And while they are unsupervised, teenagers, not surprisingly, are sometimes having sex.
Eberstadt, a Washington-based research fellow for Stanford’s Hoover Institution, says she recognizes that many mothers have to work out of economic necessity. "But this is a book for people who have choices," she said. "Any one family might be fine participating in the trends mentioned in the book. But if you step back from that individual family and look at society as a whole, I think you see that some people aren’t fine. Some kids in day care do just great. Some kids in day care have problems because of day care. I think we can open an honest conversation about these things."
Talk to your kid
Talking to children about topics such as peer pressure, religion, drug abuse and sex isn´t always easy, but Grand Island, Nebraska, USA author Mary Dey is here to help. Dey has published "Speak to Your Children," a Catholic parenting guide to help adults speak to their children about discipline, decision-making and life in general. She is certified in Natural Family Planning and Family Life classes through Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Grand Island.
The book contains 79 guides for "five-minute conversations with your kids," she said. "Five minutes a day, or even five minutes a week, can save a lot of trouble. Parents are so busy and I´m trying to make this easier." The introduction explains how to use the guide, which begins and ends with chapters on God´s love, she said. "I have found that many moms and dads do not know where to begin," Dey said. "Most parents, my husband and I included, need a little help with raising children in the increasingly anti-life and anti-faith culture. I learned there is much room for hope in spite of youth´s alarming problems. I found many parents eager to teach truth, and many young people open to learning it."
According to Dey, Catholic parents will find comfort in the book when they discover how easy it is to work with their children and talk about life´s issues and their faith. For children under 5, the conversations outlined in the book focus on love and discipline, and for older children the discussions center on faith and respect. The focus for teens is on decision-making and defending faith while rejecting peer pressure, drugs, alcohol, sex, depression, violence, etc.
Dey´s inspiration for writing the book came 17 years ago when a parent asked her if there was a guide for tackling tough topics with her children. She thought she could address the necessary issues in a pamphlet, which grew into the recently published 229-page book. Dey said she drew on her own experiences as a mother and grandmother, and also did research on the various topics included in the book.
The conversations are what sets the book apart from others published on similar topics. Parents don´t have to read the entire book before using the information gleaned. Instead, they can read a chapter after reading the introduction and speak to their children as they go, she said.
"It talks about decision-making in faith and life situations that can be passed on (from generation to generation)," said Dey.
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