Book Chapter Online Store

The Range Of Online Book Stores

In August, 2003, Patti Kirk and a friend opened the Parentbooks book chapter online store. It is still the only store of its kind in Canada, and business has increased five fold since then. Kirk and her new business partner, Bill Elleker, also her husband, stock more than 3,500 titles on anything that a parent may want to investigate.

This book chapter online store is set up like a library with sections on various topics: teenagers, mental health, divorce. The store offers books on how to have a baby and books on what to cook for them when you do have them. It also offers books on reproductive technology (including a "complete resource guide on having your baby by donor insemination") and books about incest. There are books about herpes and books about children with special needs. There are no novels or biographies; this is strictly a resource centre. And there are books on parenting skills ranging from mellow to psycho-analytical.

I bought Bruno Bettelheim's latest book there, called A Good Enough Parent. One of the leading U.S. child psychologists, he writes that "the fear of failure is so great, it is no wonder that the desire to do right by one's children has led to a whole library of books offering advice on how to raise them."

Elleker says that "there is nothing even-handed in the literature. Everything supports a point of view. Should mothers stay at home or have a career? Should you immunize your child or not? How should you educate your child? There is no middle ground."

So if you aren't sure about what to think on a given topic and are uncertain about which writers to trust, Elleker and Kirk can help. They are gregarious and patient and know their material well.

The trends in terms of what parents are purchasing are interesting in light of what they tell us about ourselves as parents: We are very concerned about being knowledgeable parents. Not only are we willing to take total responsibility for our children's development, but we hope to influence it. Or, as Elleker puts it, "there's a lot of material about maximizing your child's possibilities."

For example, the most shelving space in the store is devoted to fetus development, labor and delivery, and breastfeeding. Dr. Thomas Verny, a popular writer on pregnancy, has convinced many people to think like he does. In his new book, Parenting Your Unborn Child, he says that "the ways in which you respond to, and care for, your unborn child may affect his physical and emotional well-being for the rest of his life. . ." That's a bit too much liability for my taste but then Verny is a primal therapist.

Online Bookstores