Present: The Crisis of American Fatherhood and the Power of Showing Up

This sensitive debut guide from therapist Daniels encourages men to take active roles in their children’s lives, noting studies that found children of absentee fathers are more likely to underperform in school and experience depression. Daniels’s empathetic approach recognizes that absentee parents are often suffering from their own trauma, such as addiction, financial insecurity, incarceration, or childhood abuse. Case studies from Fathers’ Uplift, a family counseling nonprofit founded by Daniels, illustrate strategies for healing. For instance, he recounts encouraging a teen father of two who spent over a year in juvenile detention to connect with his “inner child,” which helped him better understand the needs and perspectives of his children while allowing him to work through the pain he carried from witnessing his own parents’ nonstop fighting as a kid. Though Daniels includes a few practical suggestions, such as reciting affirmations to stay calm during stressful moments, the guidance largely focuses on self-forgiveness, as when he counsels readers to judge themselves not by their past missteps but by “how well we coexist with our mistakes and the lessons we applied from them.” Compassionate and psychologically insightful, this is a must for fathers wondering how to better show up for their kids. Agent: Roger Freet, Folio Literary Management. (June)