‘90s FAMILY : Kids Bored? Try These Books to Keep Them Busy

Every year the editors of the Boston-based Horn Book Magazine, a 70-year-old journal of children’s literature, and its companion periodical, the Horn Book Guide, cull 4,000 titles to compile a list of recommended summer reading. Here are their picks for the summer of ‘94:

“Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery” (Clarion/Houghton Mifflin), by Russell Freedman. Recommended for ages 8 and up.

* “Lydia, Queen of Palestine” (Houghton Mifflin), by Uri Orlev. For ages 8-12.

* “The Mennyms” (Greenwillow/William Morrow & Co.), by Sylvia Waugh. Ages 8-12.

* “Shape-Changer” (HarperCollins), by Bill Brittain. Ages 8-12.

* “The Story of Negro League Baseball” (Ticknor/Houghton Mifflin), by William Brashler. Ages 8 and up.

* “Flour Babies” (Little, Brown & Co.), by Anne Fine. Ages 12 and up.

* “A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories” (Greenwillow/William Morrow & Co.), by Robin McKinley. Ages 12 and up.

* “Truth to Tell” (McElderry/Macmillan), by Nancy Bond. Ages 12 and up.

Maine Cracks Down on Deadbeat Parents

Maine has begun to enforce one of the nation’s toughest laws against “deadbeat parents,” revoking the driving and professional licenses of nine men who ignored repeated warnings to pay child support, officials said this week. The men are the first to face sanctions under the year-old law that has garnered the state $11.5 million from 9,000 delinquent parents simply by threatening to go after their licenses.

Maine’s law is being studied by the Clinton Administration as a possible national model for the collection of overdue child support. The nine men having both their driving and professional licenses revoked owe a total of $150,000 in child support payments.

Most Teens Adopted as Babies Thrive, Study Says

Most teen-agers who were adopted as infants are thriving, according to a four-year study of 715 families in Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin. “What seems particularly important is the way parents deal with adoption in the family,” said Dr. Peter L. Benson, president of the Minneapolis-based Search Institute, which conducted the study. “Quiet, open communication about adoption seems to be the key.”

The study did not examine children adopted after infancy but said they face struggles. “We cannot overstate the power of early placement,” Benson said. The $1-million study, conducted for the National Institute of Mental Health, was released last week and was described as the largest survey of adoptive families ever conducted in the United States.

Even Dads Get the Post-Natal Blues

Nearly one in 10 fathers suffers serious post-natal depression, British researchers say. Increasing numbers are breaking down under the pressure of sharing domestic chores, coping with the new baby and continuing as breadwinner.

For some, the joy of the birth is short-lived as they go into a spiral of decline marked by increasing malaise. They take sick days off from work and suffer restless nights even if the baby doesn’t cry. But men rarely seek treatment or admit they have a problem.

And Finally....

A letter in the July issue of Baby Talk magazine contains what the writer calls politically correct terms for parents: differently digested (spitting up); containing waste material (dirty diaper); regrouping energies (napping); relocating nutrition source (throwing food); individual follicle removal (pulling hair).