Event Listing - Literary Arts
Tue Nov 6, 2007

A panel discussion with Susan Gregory Thomas & Peggy Spear

What *NOT* to Buy For Children This Holiday!

How Consumer Culture and the Baby Genius Culture Harm Young Minds


Website

Location
Date and Time
Cody's Books - Closed
1730 Fourth Street
Berkeley, CA 94710 map
district: Berkeley (West)

Tue Nov 6, 2007 (7:00 PM)

Description
WHAT *NOT* TO BUY FOR CHILDREN THIS HOLIDAY: How Consumer Culture and the Baby Genius Culture Harm Young Minds, a panel discussion with Susan Gregory Thomas, author of BUY, BUY BABY, and Peggy Spear, editor of Bay Area Parent. Parents' night out! Our kids are becoming consumers at alarmingly young ages and are suffering the ills of rampant materialism - from anxiety to hyper-competitiveness to depression - at the same time there is no evidence that exposure to the "right products" provides any developmental or educational benefit. What's a parent to do? Investigative reporter Susan Thomas blends prodigious reporting with an empathetic voice. Her two daughters were toddlers during the writing of this book, and she never loses sight of the temporal and emotional challenges that parents face. Thomas shows how we can help of kids live at their natural pace, not the frenetic clip that serves only the toddler-industrial complex, helping us fight the power that marketers wield by exposing the false fears they spread. Susan and Peggy will lead a discussion specifically focused on keeping the upcoming holiday season's consumer culture at bay, and how to give our kids - and our families - what's really needed.