A Parent's Guide to Video Games

The first thing I want to note about this book is it’s gorgeous graphic design which I found aesthetically pleasing. The start of each chapter has eye catching and charming art in the same style as the front cover. Maybe in the future the style will seem dated but right now the look and feel is very modern. The book is formatted very much like a textbook but is extremely readable and approachable.

As for the actual content, the book covers a number of controversial topics that have come up over the last couple of decades, such as the effects videos have on health and social skills, educational advantages and disadvantages to gaming, violence, and sexism to name a few. Kowert approaches all of these topics, even the extremely difficult ones, with a professional and neutral tone. This is perhaps the most important aspect to note because when it comes to presenting an argument, it is good to do so with consideration to both sides. When the person presenting the argument leans too heavily to one side and pushes their argument too hard while offering no solutions, they end up just preaching to the audience that already agrees with them and driving anyone else away. Kowert does a good job at making strong arguments for the positive aspects of video game play for children and adolescents while also acknowledging known problems and offering up solutions or ways to deal with such problems.

In typical textbook fashion the chapter ends with a brief summary of the points covered. True to the title and aim of the book, the end of the chapters also included advice for parents which I appreciated. The book is also well cited and includes a chapter full of recommendations for those interested in doing further reading at the back of the book. Each of the topics, divided into chapters, are relatively short and usually consisting of three to five pages in length including the summary and advice sections. The author gets straight to the point and the book is easily digestible for the busy parent or gamer that maybe isn’t too big on reading.

Overall I think the book does a fairly good job at doing exactly what it set out to do: use research to tackle common concerns for parents about the negative effects of video games and explain the topics clearly while presenting a strong case for the positive aspects of gaming.