The author is a pediatric and adolescent physician. The book, published in 2005, counsels fathers on how to develop character and strength in their daughters. It is based on personal experience as a physician, a counselor for teen and children and as a mother and wife. The book jacket emphasizes the importance of avoiding teenage sexual and substance abuse. Overall, the book has a pragmatic approach based on personal and anecdotal experiences. It starts by painting a dark picture of the societal chaos which seems like scare tactics to induce reading the entire book to find a solution to protecting young girls. The book does not present a conceptual vision of what is a girl with a strong character. Many recommendations are that the father should love the girl no matter what choices she makes in life. The book has a feel of pop-psychology using many striking anecdotes to paint dramatic backgrounds for the presentation of points about personal character development in fathers and girls.
One book chapter mentions the importance of belief in God, has a non-denominational approach, and notes the statistical importance of church-going for giving teenage girls some foundation for avoiding the pitfalls of modern public schools, although the notion of statistics alone as a deterrent is questionable. The first chapter is a summary of the chaos in society as a result of the sexual revolution. It is a catalog of (mostly grave) immoral sexual actions, lewd situations, and at least one vivid description of a pornographic TV scene. This chapter is dated because many of the references to homosexual activities are already (2017) considered antiquated and current discussions have moved far beyond the pre-occupations of this chapter.
A cultural preparation is needed to read this book, because the sexual topics are treated with delicacy, but without euphemisms. Also it treats belief in God as a statistic, worth mentioning its influence, but not profound in itself.
A.M. (U.S.A., 2017)
Padres fuertes, hijas felices
Moral assessment:
Type: Thought
Nothing inappropriate.
Requires prior general knowledge of the subject.
Readers with knowledgeable about the subject matter.
Contains doctrinal errors of some importance.
Whilst not being explicitly against the faith, the general approach or its main points are ambiguous or opposed to the Church’s teachings.
Incompatible with Catholic doctrine.