PLAYSTATION NATION
OLIVIA AND KURT BRUNER
ISBN# (10)1-9317722-74-9 (13) 978-1-931722-74-2
September 2006
Hachette Book Group
1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10020
Paperback
$12.99 US/ $ 16.99
Parenting on Video Games
Rating: 5 Cups

Olivia and Kurt Bruner have written this book from personal views and research. Knowing how much our children are affected by the video game mania, and their own struggle with it, decided other parents may also need the help and info they could bring from this book. In this book, you will hear the Bruner’s own story as well as a few other family’s who have gone through the same thing.

This book will help you know how to know which games are good for your child, how to set limits and research information that can help with these decisions. You will read how your children become addicted and how it affects them physically as well as mentally. This is not a step by step thing and all situations like families are different, but it will help you understand more about video games and how our children are affected.

In one part of the book the Bruner’s give an example of letting your child play a game you yourself have not seen first is the same as a gruffy stranger coming to your door and wanting to spend time with your children. As the book starts out you are aware of how serious the video game addiction really is, they quoted 80 percent of our children have played at least one video game. This also includes the computer games and handheld games. This is not all about gloom and doom, you can also use video games as a leverage to get your child’s homework done or chores. Setting guidelines are mainly what you want to do to help your child maintain the balance of health, mental and physical.

Playstation Nation is an eye opening book on video games. The words like “addiction” and “digital drug” will capture your attention and get you to understand it is not just a video game it could be their life. The Bruner’s did an excellent job of not only showing facts and research about video games but also how we can use it to help our children and to keep our children from becoming a zombie. One part of the book really scared me about how a video game led to a child going to school and shooting innocent children and teachers. It is time to get serious about video mania and it needs to start with the parents. Playstation Nation is the best book to help you on your way to knowing more about them. This book should be on every parents to read list.

Wateena
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance
Reviewer for Karen Find Out About New Books