Book Recommendations

Want to dig deeper into some of the parenting and education topics related to student well-being and engagement we talk about at Challenge Success? Explore these books from Challenge Success co-founders, board members, advisors, colleagues, and former conference speakers.

EDUCATION

  • Overloaded and Underprepared: Strategies for Stronger Schools and Healthy, Successful Kids by Denise Pope, Maureen Brown, And Sarah Becket Miles
  • Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students by Denise Pope
  • Mindset: Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World by Tony Wagner
  • The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck
  • Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era by Tony Wagner And Ted Dintersmith

GENERAL PARENTING

  • The Emotional Lives of Teenagers by Lisa Damour
  • Congrats, You’re Having a Teen! by Ken Ginsburg
  • All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood by Jennifer Senior
  • Raising Kids to Thrive by Kenneth R. Ginsburg
  • Ready or Not: Preparing Our Kids To Thrive in an Uncertain adn Rapidly Changing World by Madeline Levine
  • Teach Your Children Well: Why Values and Coping Skills Matter More Than Grades, Trophies, or “Fat Envelopes” by Madeline Levine
  • The Parents We Mean to Be by Richard Weissbourd

COMMUNICATION

  • I’d Listen To My Parents If They’d Just Shut Up: What To Say And Not Say When Parenting Teens by Anthony Wolf
  • Voice Lessons for Parents: What to Say, How to Say it, and When to Listen by Wendy Mogel

STRESS & ANXIETY

  • Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents: 7 Ways to Stop the Worry Cycle and Raise Courageous and Independent Children by Lynn Lyons And Reid Wilson
  • The Pressured Child: Freeing Our Kids from Performance Overdrive and Helping Them Find Success in School and Life by Michael Thompson
  • The Hurried Child: Growing Up Too Fast Too Soon by David Elkind

RESILIENCE

  • Raising Resilient Children: Fostering Strength, Hope and Optimism in Your Child by Robert Brooks and Sam Goldstein
  • Building Resilience in Children and Teens: Giving Your Child Roots and Wings by Kenneth R. Ginsburg
  • The Blessing of a B Minus by Wendy Mogel
  • The Blessing of a Skinned Knee by Wendy Mogel
  • The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn To Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed by Jessica Lahey
  • Homesick and Happy: How Time Away from Parents Can Help a Child Grow by Michael Thompson

COLLEGE

  • Where You Go is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania by Frank Bruni
  • Excellent Sheep—The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life by William Deresiewicz

GENDER-SPECIFIC

  • Under Pressure by Lisa Damour
  • Untangled by Lisa Damour
  • Masterminds and Wingmen by Rosalind Wiseman

PLAY

  • The Power of Play: Learning What Comes Naturally by David Elkind

SPORTS

  • Changing the Game: The Parent’s Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to the Kids by John O’Sullivan

TECHNOLOGY

  • The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
  • The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age by Catherine Steiner-Adair

SLEEP

  • Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker 
  • How to Sleep: The New Science-Based Solutions for Sleeping Through the Night by Rafael Pelayo

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