"The transition from elementary to middle school can be a scary time for both students and their parents. Dr. Parks's book is real-life advice from a master teacher that will address most of your concerns."

Tommy Hurt
Principal, Georgetown Middle School. Georgetown, KY

"An excellent handbook which parents of every new middle schooler should read, and reread with their son or daughter as they begin these formative and impressionable years of middle school. Herein are the keys to success."Dr. Dallas Blankenship
Superintendent, Scott Co. Public Schools

Parents are seldom-if ever-prepared for the enormous changes their child faces entering middle school. The sheltered, structured, and nurturing environment that is elementary school gives way to the fast-paced, organized chaos of middle school. Students often feel more thrown in, rather than eased into, the middle school world, and parents of first-time middle schoolers often feel more lost than their children. The sixth grade is the time when Mom and Dad start to feel they are losing their little one forever, and-in a very real sense-they are.

Help! My Child is Starting Middle School! is merely an effort to help parents and their children get off to a successful start in middle school. Although primarily written for parents, portions of the book can be read and used by middle schoolers themselves. At the end of each chapter are presented numerous real-world middle school situations, which may very well occur. As these are read, parents should consider how they might address the situations, and then discuss with their child their thoughts, and how they might deal with alternatives. In discussing these together, both parent and middle schooler will be better prepared for what's coming in middle school.