cover image Dream So Big: A Parent's Guide to Helping Your Child Believe & Achieve

Dream So Big: A Parent's Guide to Helping Your Child Believe & Achieve

Christopher B. Pearman. Adams Media Corporation, $19.95 (229pp) ISBN 978-1-4405-0402-0

As the father and former manager of TV actress Raven-Symoné, who began on The Cosby Show and went on to star in her own show, That's So Raven, Pearman navigated his talented, enthusiastic daughter through the murky waters of showbiz to produce an exceptionally well-adjusted and successful young woman. In his parenting volume, the winning stage dad presents eight guiding principles, which he calls ""Dream Catchers,"" meant to stabilize kids while encouraging them to ""dream without limitations,"" fostering ""strong, independent, and unique personalities."" Though he uses examples from his experience with the exceptionally precocious Raven, who cut a record at age seven, his concepts are universal: playing a positive role model, imbuing children with focus and encouraging them to face their fears, setting goals, and more. Pearman also cites studies and philosophers, includes thought-provoking questionnaires to help parents and children hone in on their dreams, and invites testimony from knowing sources like Seseme Street writer-producer Emily Pearl Kingsley and Stephanie Austin, the modeling agency founder who discovered Raven when she was just a year old.