Looking for a parenting book to help you in your journey as a new parent? Here are our top picks that our team at Happity swears by!* Many of these parenting books/authors have sister blogs and podcasts, so you can still dip in and out even when you don’t have free hands!
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1. The Book Your Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did) (2019) by Phillipa Perry
Recommended by: Lisa
What to expect: Most parents are now on board with the idea that validating your child’s emotions and feelings is vital to create trust and connection with them. The Book Your Wish Your Parents Had Read is one of those books that helps promote that idea of emotional safety, and a deep, meaningful bond between parent and child, as well as loads more about parenting and how it can come from how we were brought up ourselves. Read more here and listen to the first two chapters.
“The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read is a classic.”
– Lisa, Team Happity
2. Your Baby: Week By Week (updated 2018) by Simone Cave and Caroline Fertleman
Recommended by: Eleanor and Liz
What to expect: A practical guide to the changes your baby will go through from birth to six months, with sections on bathing, feeding, sleep, crying, health, development and much more. It really is split up into weekly chapters as well.
“Your Baby: Week By Week is just very practical and reassuring advice about what to expect at each stage, so I’ve passed it onto several first-time mums!”
– Eleanor, Team Happity
“It was very useful in breaking it all down into bite-sized chunks and chapters of what was usual for a newborn. The subheadings of ‘feeding’, ‘sleep’ etc. were very helpful. And we just skipped the section about controlled crying!”
– Liz, Team Happity
3. Any of the ‘gentle’ books by Sarah Ockwell-Smith – The Gentle Sleep Book (2015), The Gentle Parenting Book (revised 2023), The Gentle Discipline Book (2017)
Recommended by: Lisa, Eleanor and Emily
What to expect: British author and mum of four Sarah Ockwell-Smith has written lots in the ‘gentle parenting’ series, including The Gentle Parenting Book: How to raise calmer, happier children from birth to seven and ones about sleep and discipline. Gentle parenting isn’t about being permissive but about connecting and collaboration with your child, all while setting firm boundaries and establishing mutual respect. Take a look at any of her books if you want to learn more.
“I also enjoy Sarah Ockwell-Smith books (Tween in particular, though that’s for slightly older ones).”
– Emily, Team Happity
4. No Bad Kids: Toddler Discipline Without Shame (2014) by Janet Lansbury
Recommended by: Liz
What to expect: Janet Lansbury’s responses to parenting queries are also available as podcasts (which you can read the transcripts for) while No Bad Kids: Toddler Discipline Without Shame is a book full of her articles. Expect respectful parenting advice (and kind, but clear boundary-setting and empathy) inspired by the work of early educator Madga Gerber and her RIE principles.
“I’m a big fan of Janet Lansbury. If you don’t have time to sit down and read her book, why not listen to one of her podcasts? It’s an easy win with earphones either at home or out and about.”
– Liz, Team Happity
5. Raising A Happier Mother (2023): How to Find Balance, Feel Good and See Your Children Flourish as a Result by Anna Mathur
Recommended by: Lisa and Eleanor
What to expect: Want to become a calmer mum? This book could be for you. It’s a reexamination of motherhood aimed at taking the pressure off modern mums and empowering them to trust their instincts and know they’re doing a great job.
“Raising A Happier Mother is not so much parenting advice (which personally I usually find almost impossible to follow without turning into a weird parent robot who has nothing to do with my actual personality!) but about self-care and understanding your own psychology around parenting. As a perfectionist and control freak I found it really helpful!”
– Lisa, Team Happity
6. The Anxious Generation (2024) by Jonathan Haidt
Recommended by: Emily
What to expect: Worried about the impact of Smartphones on the current (and future) generation? In The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt examines the impact of the decline of ‘free play’ on our youngsters as many spend more and more time online.
Want to follow the movement for a Smartphone Free Childhood? Read more about what parents can do to promote a more play-based childhood and sign the parent pact (even for preschoolers!)
7. Keeping Your Cool Parenting: How to Bring out the Best in Yourself and Your Child (2024) by Camilla Miller
Recommended by: Emily
What to expect: Learn how to connect with your child and see behind their behaviour to what’s really bothering them. Rather than giving punishments and rewards, Keeping Your Cool Parenting is all about helping to work out what’s going on with your child in the moment, the theory being that if they feel heard, seen and listened to, you can help them through it – and still set clear boundaries.
8. Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood (2023) by Lucy Jones
Recommended by: Eleanor
What to expect: Wanting to know more about mental health and motherhood? Written by science journalist Lucy Jones, Matrescence looks at how giving birth – and being a mother – alters a person’s body, brain and mind, as well as what society seems to expect of new mums. It aims to recognise “the psychological and physiological significance of becoming a mother: how it affects the brain, the endocrine system, cognition, immunity, the psyche, the microbiome, the sense of self.”
“I LOVED Matrescence, but it can be quite an intense read about the harder parts of early motherhood, so maybe something you read a few years down the line rather than when expecting/in the early stages!”
– Eleanor, Team Happity
9. Making It Better For Boys in Schools, Families and Communities (2008) by Ali McClure
Recommended by: Emily
What to expect: Have a boy and want to know more practical advice about their development? Making It Better For Boys helps us to understand more about boys’ behaviour and what we can do to help them, through childhood and adolescence.
“Making It Better For Boys was fab. Lots about how boys after a certain age aren’t trusted, but I read it when my son was about three on the recommendation of his Kindergarten teacher. So it’s good to read when they are young.”
– Emily, Team Happity
10. How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk (2012) by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
Recommended by: Emily
What to expect: Wanting to know how to set clear boundaries but do it positively and in a way that still connects with your child? It might be worth giving international bestseller How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk a try. It’s available as an audio book, too.
11. The Unmumsy Mum (2016) by Sarah Turner
Recommended by: Liz
What to expect: Less of a parenting manual and more of a humorous first-hand experience, The Unmumsy Mum details the highs and lows of parenting from a mum with a baby and a toddler.
“The Unmumsy Mum (Sarah Turner) started out as a popular blog with the ‘truth’ about motherhood – some of the incidents she describes (such as one about hand-expressing milk and blocked ducts) literally had me cringing but also laughing out loud. It’s very relatable.”
– Liz, Team Happity
12. MILF: Motherhood, Identity, Love and F*ckery (2024) by Paloma Faith
Recommended by: Lucy
What to expect: An upfront, uncensored and honest take on motherhood and what it means to be a woman. With reviews by Anna Mathur, Fearne Cotton and Giovanna Fletcher, it’s bound to provoke a strong emotional response.
“I just started reading Paloma Faith’s MILF yesterday – it reads like it is going to be a good one! Very much revealing the “real truth” about getting pregnant, birth, parenting. Only a couple of chapters in but it’s a no holds barred account of parenting experience.”
– Lucy, Team Happity
Other Interesting-Looking Parenting Books (That We Haven’t Actually Had Time To Read Yet!)
- The Idle Parent: Why Less Means More When Raising Kids (2010) by Tom Hodgkinson
- My Child Won’t Eat by father and paediatrician Carlos Gonzalez.
And finally…
– Emma Hubbard’s parenting channel
“A bit different but I love Emma Hubbard’s YouTube channel. She’s a mum and paediatric occupational therapist. I’ve found her parenting tips helpful!”
– Helen, Team Happity
*Please note that these are not in any particular order but are numbered for ease of reference.
Disclaimer: the views expressed in parenting books are not our own and can sometimes be controversial, so, as parents, remember to pick and choose which books align with your parenting style, beliefs and viewpoints.
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