Quick Synopsis – For years, millions of fans have looked to the beloved role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons for fun, friendship, and entertainment. And now parents and parents-to-be can use it to gain inspiration and how-to when it comes to their most challenging and rewarding role yet. Dungeon Masters are not just expert storytellers and arbiters of the rules, they’re compassionate, creative, quick-thinking leaders who embody the same traits that make a great parent.

Song This Reminds Me Of – Eye of the Tiger by Survivor

Publication Date – Nov. 12, 2024

Rating – ⭐⭐⭐.5 out of 5

Review – Every year I read a handful of nonfiction books, and this was a delight to read. I would say this is definitely geared towards expecting parents or parents of young children. I don’t play dungeons and dragons, but my husband does. Even though I don’t play, I still found this to be a really fun read.

I’m the parent of a toddler so a lot of the early chapters were fun to read but weren’t as informative or applicable for me. I think it would have been fun if in the beginning of the book in the index, it would have outlined where to start if you had kids already you could pick where to start. Like more of a choose your own adventure. Even though some of the advice in the beginning wasn’t as applicable to me, it was still a fun book.

I read an electronic version of this book, and there were little mini monster manual entries throughout the book. This was so cute, but the formatting was crazy in the eBook and spread the little monster entries out awkwardly. I did like how the book really focused on building community and not advocating that one type of parenting is better than another. There’s even a section that outlines the different types of dungeon masters and parenting styles, the section doesn’t praise one type of parenting but simply offers advice. I like that there isn’t advice that puts down parents but gives solutions for all kinds of parents.

Overall, this was a fun parenting book.

Thanks to NetGalley and University of Iowa Press for the advanced copy, all opinions are my own.