Parenting books I recommend:

Parent Effectiveness Training by Thomas Gordon:  A classic.  How to get
along with your children using respect, communication, mutual
understanding, cooperation and problem-solving rather than power and control.

Setting Limits: How to Raise Responsible Children with CLEAR Boundaries,
by R. Mackenzie.   Good for parents who have been permissive and want to
start enforcing rules, and don't know where to start to get control of
their kids.  I think it would also be good for parents who want to stop
spanking or stop being as strict but still maintain control.  This book
uses strict "consequences" but does not use spanking, and gives ways to
make the consequences effective so they don't have to be used too often.

Secrets of Discipline by R. Morrish.  Once you know how to get basic
control, I would move on to this book to learn good long-term discipline which
avoids power struggles, instills values and develops a calm lifestyle in
which good discipline is simply a habit.

The Family Virtues Guide by Linda Popov:  How to teach children virtues
such as patience, honesty, cleanliness, compassion etc.  This book makes
the point that a large part of teaching these virtues is talking about
them:  using the words when praising a child or when reminding a child to
improve his/her behaviour, etc.  A family can choose one virtue per week
to focus on and try to learn to do better.  Even very small children catch
on quickly to the meanings of these words, and mentioning the virtues in
specific situations does work in helping bring out these developing
virtues in children.


Books about teaching children how to read:

see my parenting page http://www.ncf.ca/~an588/par_home.html