BOOK REVIEW: "Five-Star Families: Moving Yours from Good to Great"

Five-Star Families:

Moving Yours from Good to Great

By Carol Kuykendall

Copyright 2005

Fleming H. Revell Publishing

Non-Fiction

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Have you ever thought your family was pretty good but you'd really like it if they were "great"?  I saw the title of this book and wondered what some author might say about taking your family from "good" to "great". 

But wow.  What a disappointment. 

I think the author had the grandest of intentions when writing this book; i.e. help others do what needs to be done to have a "five-star family."  But her effort falls woefully short.  Instead, she merely points out the things she now thinks she did wrong and touts the things she thinks she did well.  She has really no expertise in this area, other than being the mother of three children that somehow managed to reach adulthood without landing in juvenile hall.  Oh, and she has a bachelor's degree in journalism. 

So many things irked me while reading this book. Seriously too many to list.  But the biggest one was the author's assumption that a family consists of two parents and numerous children.  I felt like so little of the book applied to my life (with my little family of mom, dad and one, lone child), that it was nearly a complete waste of my time to read it.  Over half the book seemed to be devoted to getting siblings not to fight with each other.  The other half seemed to be devoted to getting the siblings to stand up for each other against "the rest of the world."  I can't imagine someone living in a non-traditional household (one parent and kids, or grandparents raising kids, etc.), finding this a useful book either.

The one bright side to the book is that she did actually list five qualities that she thinks all families should have:  Love, Fun, Loyalty, Growth and Faith.  Although probably not the five qualities I would have listed were I to write a book of the same title (hmmmmm.....let's see.....if I had to list five right now I would say love, patience, forgiveness, devotion and......kindness).

Frankly, I was really disappointed that there wasn't anything more to this book than "This is what I did and it worked for me so you should do it too!"