Fourteen Talks by Age Fourteen: The Essential Conversations You Need to Have With Your Kids Before They Start High School (Harmony/Random House 2021)
The fourteen essential conversations to have with your tween and early teenager to prepare them for the emotional, physical, and social challenges ahead, including scripts and advice to keep the communication going and stay connected during this critical developmental window.
Trying to convince a middle schooler to listen to you can be exasperating. Indeed, it can feel like the best option is not to talk! But keeping kids safe—and prepared for all the times to come when you can’t be the angel on their shoulder—is all about having the right conversations at the right time. And from a brain growth and emotional readiness perspective, there is no better time for this than their tween years, right up to when they enter high school.
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Distilling Michelle Icard’s decades of experience working with families, Fourteen Talks by Age Fourteen focuses on big, thorny topics such as friendship, sexuality, impulsivity, and hygiene, as well as unexpected conversations about creativity, money, privilege, tolerance, and being a contributing member of the family. Icard outlines a simple, memorable, and family-tested formula for the best approach to these essential talks, the BRIEF Model: Begin peacefully, Relate to your child, Interview to collect information, Echo what you’re hearing, give Feedback. She also helps parents get over the most common hurdles in talking to tweens: knowing what conversations are most important, figuring out what to say and what phrases to avoid, having a way to get started that won’t irritate kids or scare them off, how to keep kids engaged in conversation, and how to exit the conversation in a way that keeps kids wanting more.
Like a Rosetta Stone for your tween’s confounding language, Fourteen Talks by Age Fourteen is an essential guide to preparing your tween for teenaged success.
“Michelle Icard takes on one of the toughest times in all of parenting: that phase when parents desperately want to stay connected to tweens and teens who desperately want their privacy and independence. In Fourteen Talks by Age Fourteen Icard lays out exactly how to start the critical conversations we want to have with our teenagers, keep these key discussions going, and steer clear of common missteps that often close down lines of communication. This book is a gift to parents and teenagers alike.”– Lisa Damour, PhD., author Untangled and Under Pressure
“Revel in the great common sense, depth of thought, and even humor herein. Michelle Icard is a wise advisor and her book is a treasure for parents everywhere.” – Rosalind Wiseman, New York Times bestselling author of Queen Bees and Wannabees: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boys, and the New Realities of Girl World
Middle School Makeover: Improving The Way You and Your Child Experience the Middle School Years (Routledge, 2014)
Middle School Makeover pairs reliable scientific research about adolescent development with Michelle Icard’s personal, extensive experience working with middle-school-aged kids and their parents to offers concrete and practical advice for heling tweens through the socially fraught world of middle school. It’s the primer for the social and emotional changes parents and kids navigate when mid-life meets middle school under one roof.
“Affirming, spot-on advice for guiding kids through the difficult middle school years, blending practicality, and gentle humor.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Was middle school bad enough when you were going through it? Is facing middle school again through your child’s experience giving you pause and anxiety? Worry no more. Michelle Icard has done an incredible job of offering parents not just the empathy they seek but the strategies they need to navigate their child’s middle school year with wisdom, grace, and foresight. Icard so deftly blends storytelling, research, and guidance, you’ll feel like you are having lunch with that smart, compassionate friend who never lets you feel defeated. Middle School Makeover will empower you to capably and calmly parent through the hard times and inspire you to celebrate through them, too.” —Rosie Molinary, author of Beautiful You: A Daily Guide to Radical Self-Acceptance
Download the Middle School Makeover group discussion guide for your school or book club.
For information on review copies of Fourteen Talks by Age Fourteen, please contact Marnie Cochran with Harmony/Random House.
For information on Middle School Makeover, please contact Quinn Davidson.
For media or interview requests with Michelle, please contact Lindsey Kennedy.
Michelle’s literary agent is Anna Sproul-Latimer of Neon Literary Agency.
High-res version of book covers and author photo may be accessed by clicking here.
Athena’s Path & Hero’s Pursuit Social Leadership Curricula for Middle Schoolers
Athena’s Path™ (for girls) & Hero’s Pursuit (for boys) is social leadership curricula for middle schools. Our programs teach students skills and processes that help them learn to resolve conflict, handle stress, and develop a stronger sense of community. The social drama of middle school can take up valuable learning time and provide distractions for your students. Our programs help students build communication, empathy, problem-solving, and leadership skills.
To purchase or inquire about Athena’s Path & Hero’s Pursuit curricula, please complete this form.