As a mom to 6.5- and 9-year-old boys, this book landed in my lap at exactly the right time. It dives into “middle childhood” (ages 6–12) , a stage that’s apparently always been important, but is now supercharged thanks to tech overload, rising stress, and puberty onsetting earlier. (Fun fact: it starts in the brain, which explains the sudden emotional tsunamis you're probably dodging on the daily if you have a kid this age.)

The author makes it clear: this is the window where we have the most influence on our kids’ futures - from their mental health to the quality of their adult friendships. No pressure, right?

The book covers it all, from body changes and big feelings to friendship drama, digital landmines, building confidence, and resisting the perfection trap. It’s a lot and you may even feel your blood pressure uptick and your mind going "I'M NOT READY FOR THIS STAGE" but it’s also deeply validating, surprisingly comforting, and full of practical, doable, insightful advice.

My only critique is that the structure felt a bit scattered as it went jumping between physical, mental, and external changes without a clear flow. A more streamlined organization could have made the information easier to absorb.

That said, it's a good read for parents wondering when their cute kiddo morphed into a tiny moody roommate.

My kids are in this range so this had so much good information for parents to know! We talk about toddlers and puberty a lot but not as much these middle years as shared in this book. I've done quite a bit of parenting research as part of my curiosity as well as my Whole Wellness Mamas business so while a lot of this wasn't new to me, I loved that it was consolidated in one place in this book with also some tangible scripts for different harder discussions.

Connection is key at this age, and we need to remember that what we do at this stage really helps build the foundation for our relationship with our kids into puberty and beyond. It's about equipping our kids with the skills to deal with various circumstances throughout their life and helping them know that we as parents are a safe place to come to talk about anything. That's what I've strived to do with my kids, and when I do fall short of how I want to be as a parent, I make sure to repair any tears in our relationship of my yelling or whatever happened when I lost my cool. Our kids see how we act and react and are learning.

An eye opening look at the importance of parenting a child ages 6-12. Each chapter dives in to important topics and how to best help your child learn. This book covers many topics and has tons of studies backing it up and helpful suggestions. I think every parent should read this book! From puberty, sex education, to screens and peer pressure this book covers it all with science backed data and with years of experience from the author who is not only a child psychiatrist but a mother as well. I feel armed and ready to tackle the hard conversations with my own children to know they are loved and supported and so they can be ready to face the challenges of life. Thank you so much to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. Grab yours on May 6!

This book provides helpful insights for parents dealing with the middle childhood years, a stage that often lacks resources. It covers relevant topics that many parents find important. However, some of the developmental information seems off. The use of gender-specific language throughout the book also feels outdated and could be more inclusive. Overall, while the book has potential, addressing these issues would make it more useful and appealing.

A great resource, where there are not many for this age group. As a clinician that has an 8-year-old and works with parents of this age group I will be for sure recommending this to many of my clients. The topics discussed are the ones that parents are concerned about and are definitely needing more guidance on. A very helpful one that will be added to my library.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harvest for the ARC!

I have very mixed feelings on this book. While I think the premise is so important--these in between years that have historically not been considered to matter as much as teenage years or early childhood--there were several things the author mentioned or said that did not seem to be "correct" to me, and I say that with the background of a degree in psychology as well as a doctorate in the medical field. For example, many of her "norms of development" felt off by entire years. While the information itself was good outside of this, and there were helpful aspects, this made me question her knowledge.

In addition, she discusses inclusivity yet felt it was appropriate to refer to EVERY child in the book as "he" -- as in using he as though it's gender neutral, which it's not. That alone will keep me from recommending this book to anyone. As a woman and someone who has a daughter, this language felt very exclusionary. Furthermore, it's well-known in medicine and science that many people do not fit neatly into he or she and gender neutral terms should have been included.

While I wanted so much to love this book, these aspects as a parent, as well as a DNP, made me feel like I could not read it again, nor recommend it. I would highly advise these aspects be fixed to not only be inclusive, because it's the right thing to do, but also because this will undoubtedly hurt sales.

This is a book that parents of children ages 12 and younger will want to have on their bookshelf for regular reference. Dr. Ziegler is knowledgeable and refers to research as well as past clients in her information that she shares. The book is incredibly well-researched, and most importantly, up to date. It includes recommendations for screen time, and warnings of detrimental use, vaping, pre-puberty, social media, school shootings, eating disorders and more.

The author refers to the ages of 6-12 as having been the "lost years" in research on childhood, as most parenting books focus on babies-preschoolers then zoom up to teens. This book is incredibly valuable as a resource of solid information and one I intend to purchase so I can reference it regularly.

I highly recommend this book for therapists, parents, libraries, and teachers.