Mini Review: Geek Parenting by Stephen H. Segal and Valya Dudycz Lupescu
Geek Parenting: What Joffrey, Jor-El, Maleficent, and the McFlys Teach Us about Raising a Family Author: Stephen H. Segal, Valya Dudycz Lupescu
Publisher: Quirk Books
Published: April 5th 2016
Genres: Adult, Non-Fiction, Parenting, Pop Culture
Pages: 208
Format: ARC
Source: From publisher
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Goodreads
It takes a starship to raise a child. Or a time machine. Or a tribe of elves. Fortunately, Geek Parenting offers all that and more, with thoughtful mini-essays that reveal profound child-rearing advice (and mistakes) from the most beloved tales of geek culture. Nerds and norms alike can take counsel from some of the most iconic parent–child pairings found in pop culture: Aunt May and Peter Parker, Benjamin and Jake Sisko, Elrond and Arwen, even Cersei and Joffrey. Whether you’re raising an Amazon princess, a Jedi Padawan, a brooding vampire, or a standard-issue human child, Geek Parenting helps you navigate the ion storms, alternate realities, and endless fetch quests that come with being a parent.
(Cover and synopsis from Goodreads.)
FTC Disclaimer: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
As with all my mini reviews, I’m just going to share some of my notes that I took while reading Geek Parenting.
- Funny book!
- There are great parenting lessons in this book BUT I don’t feel like I’m learning much. It’s more like telling us “you can learn this parenting lesson from this movie/TV show/comic/video game,” etc. I was hoping to learn more FROM this book, but instead it’s just kind of a list of lessons and what part of pop culture you can learn each lesson from.
- Sadly, I’m bored.
- Lots of great references to lots of great movies, TV shows, books, etc.
- Love the feminism!
- Books I’ve added to my TBR from reading this book: Isaac Asimov’s Robot series, Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, Bayou Vol 1 by Jeremy Love, The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, and the Earthseed series by Octavia E. Butler. And I already wanted to read Dune by Frank Herbert but I want to read it even more now!
- More feminism! Yay!
- LGBT love!
I love the idea that pop culture can teach us about parenting, or any other subject for that matter. I mean, it’s so true, because the people who come up with these aspects of pop culture (the authors, screenwriters, creators, etc.) take part of our own culture and infuse them into the movies, TV shows, video games, etc. that we love. The fact is, we probably wouldn’t love them as much if they didn’t in some way reflect our own society. So I think the premise of Geek Parenting was a great one: a way to show how all these geeky things that we love that are often thought of as inferior can actually help us to be better parents. That’s a fantastic premise. Unfortunately, I was hoping for more than what was given in this ARC. Instead of delving deep into all of these parts of pop culture and really getting at the heart of these lessons, it seemed like just a list of lessons and where we can learn them within pop culture. I think there was great potential here, but Geek Parenting failed to reach that potential.
Andrea
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Chrystal
January 16, 2017 at 5:52 pmI enjoyed your review style for this book. And too bad it didn’t live up to your expectations. I was hoping for the same things. Perhaps this will be a library borrow for me instead of a purchase. I do love pop culture references so hopefully it’s not a complete flop for me