The antiparent Reading List

Wondering where I get all these wacky ideas about kids? Some of it is my own analysis, but a lot of it is drawn from books/journals I've been reading. I try to link to resources at the end of my posts for those curious to learn more, but I figured it would also be good to start a standalone list.

If the title is in plain type, I own it/it's on my reading list. If it's in bold type, I've read it already. And if I've reviewed it on this site, I'll add a link to the post. I'll keep adding books and reviews over time, so check back every once in a while!

Youth Liberation

• Escape from Childhood
  • Holt, John. Escape from Childhood: The Needs and Rights of Children. Reprint. HoltGWS LLC, 2013. https://www.johnholtgws.com/shop/p/escape-from-childhood-the-needs-and-rights-of-children
  • 2015 Review (not mine): https://pure.qub.ac.uk/files/18051635/Escape_from_Childhood_Review_B_Byrne_Oct_12_2015_final.pdf
• Trust Kids!
  • bergman, carla, ed. Trust Kids! Stories on Youth Autonomy and Confronting Adult Supremacy. AK Press, 2022. https://www.akpress.org/trust-kids.html
• NO! Against Adult Supremacy
  • Journal with 20 issues. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/no-against-adult-supremacy-vol-1.pdf
• The Teenage Liberation Handbook
  • Llewellyn, Grace. The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education. 30th Anniversary. Lowry House Publishers, 2021.
  • Excerpt: https://www.self-directed.org/tp/teenage-liberation-handbook/

Family Abolition

• Family Abolition
  • O’Brien, M. E. Family Abolition. 1st ed. Pluto Press, 2023. https://www.plutobooks.com/product/family-abolition/
• Abolish the Family
  • Lewis, Sophie. Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation. Verso, 2022. https://www.versobooks.com/products/2890-abolish-the-family
• The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State
  • Engels, Friedrich. The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. Foundations, #12. Foreign Languages Press, 2020. https://foreignlanguages.press/product/the-origin-of-the-family-private-property-and-the-state-frederick-engels/

Social Reproduction Theory & Sexgender

• Women, Race, and Class
  • Davis, Angela Yvonne. Women, Race & Class. 1st Vintage books ed. Vintage Books, 1983. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/37354/women-race-and-class-by-angela-y-davis/.
• Social Reproduction Theory
  • Bhattacharya, Tithi, and Lise Vogel, eds. Social Reproduction Theory: Remapping Class, Recentering Oppression. Pluto Press, 2017. https://www.plutobooks.com/product/social-reproduction-theory/
• The Backstage of the Care Economy
  • Lutz, Helma. The Backstage of the Care Economy: Transnational Perspectives on the Commercialisation of Care. Pluto Press, 2025. https://www.plutobooks.com/product/the-backstage-of-the-care-economy/.
• Going into Labour
  • Fielder, Anna. Going into Labour: Childbirth In Capitalism. Mapping Social Reproduction Theory. Pluto Press, 2024. https://www.plutobooks.com/product/going-into-labour/.
• Women and Work
  • Ferguson, Susan J. Women and Work: Feminism, Labour, and Social Reproduction. Mapping Social Reproduction Theory. Pluto Press, 2020. https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745338712/women-and-work/.
• Trans/Rad/Fem
  • Bhatt, Talia. Trans/Rad/Fem: Essays on Transfeminism. 2025. https://taliabhatt.itch.io/transradfem.
• Gender Ternary and Subalternization
  • Substack Article
  • The Sizhen System. “Gender Ternary and Subalternization: A Materialist Feminist Prototype Technology for the Transfeminist Era.” Substack, July 1, 2025. Rebuild Edition. https://thesizhensystem.substack.com/p/gender-ternary-and-subalternization.
• A History of the Girl
  • O’Dowd, Mary, and June Purvis, eds. A History of the Girl. Springer International Publishing, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69278-4.

Education

• Making Workers (my review/notes here)
  • Mitchell, Katharyne. Making Workers: Radical Geographies of Education. Radical Geography. Pluto Press, 2018. https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745399850/making-workers/
• Schooling in Capitalist America
  • Bowles, Samuel, and Herbert Gintis. Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life. Haymarket Books, 2011. https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/378-schooling-in-capitalist-america
• The Education Trap
  • Groeger, Cristina Viviana. The Education Trap: Schools and the Remaking of Inequality in Boston. Harvard University Press, 2021. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674249110
• Reflections on Gifted Education
  • Renzulli, Joseph S., and Sally M. Reis. Reflections on Gifted Education: Critical Works by Joseph S. Renzulli and Colleagues. 1st ed. Routledge, 2021. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003237693.

Violence Against Kids & Transformative Justice

• Relinquished
  • Sisson, Gretchen. Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood. First edition. St. Martin’s Press, 2024. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250286772/relinquished/.
• Framing Abuse
  • Kitzinger, Jenny. Framing Abuse: Media Influence and Public Understanding of Sexual Violence against Children. Pluto Press, 2010. https://www.plutobooks.com/product/framing-abuse/.
• Are Prisons Obsolete?
  • Davis, Angela Y. Are Prisons Obsolete? Open Media Ser. Seven Stories Press, 2003. https://www.sevenstories.com/books/2907-are-prisons-obsolete.
• We Do This 'Til We Free Us
  • Kaba, Mariame, and Tamara K. Nopper. We Do This ’til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice. The Abolitionist Papers Series. Haymarket books, 2021. https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1664-we-do-this-til-we-free-us.
• Abolition, Feminism, Now.
  • Davis, Angela Y., Gina Dent, Erica R. Meiners, and Beth E. Richie. Abolition, Feminism, Now. The Abolitionist Papers Series. Haymarket Books, 2022. https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1546-abolition-feminism-now.
• The Black Panther Party Service to the People Programs
  • The Dr Huey P. Newton Foundation, and David Hilliard. Black Panther Party: Service to the People Programs. University of New Mexico Press, 2010. https://archive.org/details/hilliard-ed-the-black-panther-party-service-to-the-people-programs/.

Eugenics

• Eugenics, Race, and Intelligence in Education
  • Chitty, Clyde. Eugenics, Race and Intelligence in Education. Reprint. Continuum, 2009. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/eugenics-race-and-intelligence-in-education-9780826426185/.
• The Orphans of Davenport
  • Brookwood, Marilyn. The Orphans of Davenport: Eugenics, the Great Depression, and the War over Children’s Intelligence. 1st ed. Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2021. https://wwnorton.com/books/9781631494680.
• Imbeciles
  • Cohen, Adam. Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck. Penguin Publishing Group, 2016. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/529315/imbeciles-by-adam-cohen/.

History of Childhood

• Centuries of Childhood
  • Ariès, Philippe. Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life. Vintage Books, 1962. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/4742/centuries-of-childhood-by-philippe-aries/
  • Criticism: Metcalf, Steven. “Farewell to the Mini-Me.” Slate Magazine, March 11, 2002. https://slate.com/culture/2002/03/the-fight-over-when-childhood-began.html.
• Childhood in World History
  • Stearns, Peter N. Childhood in World History. 2. ed. Themes in World History. Routledge, 2011. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203839751/childhood-world-history-peter-stearns
• Reinventing Childhood after World War II
  • Fass, Paula S., and Michael Grossberg, eds. Reinventing Childhood after World War II. Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2012. https://www.pennpress.org/9780812223187/reinventing-childhood-after-world-war-ii/
• The History of Childhood
  • DeMause, Lloyd. The History of Childhood. 1st ed. With Lloyd DeMause. Master Work. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Incorporated, 1995. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/history-of-childhood-9781568215518/
• Suffering Childhood in Early America
  • Duane, Anna Mae. Suffering Childhood in Early America: Violence, Race, and the Making of the Child Victim. Paperback ed. Univ. of Georgia Press, 2011.https://muse.jhu.edu/book/2642
• Racial Innocence
  • Bernstein, Robin. Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights. America and the Long 19th Century. New York University Press, 2011. https://nyupress.org/9780814787083/racial-innocence/
• The End of American Childhood
  • Fass, Paula S. The End of American Childhood: A History of Parenting from Life on the Frontier to the Managed Child. Princeton University Press, 2016. https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691162577/the-end-of-american-childhood.
• Childhood and Society
  • Erikson, Erik H. Childhood and Society. 2nd ed. W. W. Norton, 1964. https://archive.org/details/childhoodsociety00erikrich/
• A History of Childhood
  • Heywood, Colin. A History of Childhood: Children and Childhood in the West from Medieval to Modern Times. Polity Press, 2006. (https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7956063M/A_History_of_Childhood)
• Thinking about History
  • General historical studies, not about children specifically. Really enjoyed this book, though!
  • Maza, Sarah C. Thinking about History. The University of Chicago Press, 2017. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo17212779.html
  • Article by the same author: Maza, Sarah. “The Kids Aren’t All Right: Historians and the Problem of Childhood.” The American Historical Review 125, no. 4 (2020): 1261–85. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhaa380.
• The Princeton Guide to Historical Research
  • General historical studies
  • Schrag, Zachary M. The Princeton Guide to Historical Research. Skills for Scholars. Princeton University Press, 2021. https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691198224/the-princeton-guide-to-historical-research.

Other Sides (Reformist/Counterrevolutionary)

• Good Inside
  • The parenting book I reference most often!
  • Kennedy, Becky. Good Inside: A Guide to Becoming the Parent You Want to Be. Harper Wave, 2022. https://www.harpercollins.com/products/good-inside-becky-kennedy?variant=39934329094178.
• How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk
  • The parenting book I reference the second most often!
  • Faber, Adele. How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk. With Elaine Mazlish. Scribner, 2012. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/How-to-Talk-So-Kids-Will-Listen-Listen-So-Kids-Will-Talk/Adele-Faber/The-How-To-Talk-Series/9781451663884.
• The Conscious Parent
  • Tsabary, Shefali. The Conscious Parent: Transforming Ourselves Empowering Our Children. Namaste Publishing, 2010. https://www.namastepublishing.com/the-conscious-parent.
• The Whole-Brain Child
  • Leans a lot on left brain/right brain stuff for which the evidence is tenuous: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/right-brainleft-brain-right-2017082512222
  • Their strategies have still been useful to me, though.
  • Siegel, Daniel J., and Tina Payne Bryson. The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind. Delacorte Press, 2011. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/200276/the-whole-brain-child-by-daniel-j-siegel-md-and-tina-payne-bryson-phd/.
• The Anxious Generation
  • Haidt, Jonathan. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. Penguin Press, 2024.
  • Criticism: Odgers, Candice L. “The Great Rewiring: Is Social Media Really behind an Epidemic of Teenage Mental Illness?” Nature 628, no. 8006 (2024): 29–30. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00902-2.
• The Family Firm
  • Oster, Emily. The Family Firm: A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years. Penguin Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2022. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/639450/the-family-firm-by-emily-oster/
  • Criticism: https://newrepublic.com/article/163151/not-run-family-like-business-emily-oster-family-firm-review
• Punished by Rewards
  • Kohn, Alfie. Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes. Twenty-Fifth anniversary edition. Mariner Books, 2018. https://www.alfiekohn.org/punished-rewards/.
• Takedown
  • Kengor, Paul. Takedown: From Communists to Progressives, How the Left Has Sabotaged Family and Marriage. WND Books, 2015.