There are tons of parenting books on the Christian market at the present time. I’ve read many of them, though there seems to be a new one every week. I confess that I have a bias against a lot of Christian advice books. I read many of them as trying to offer us a path to the easy life. “If you follow my proven ideas, your kids will turn out well.” That said, there are some books out there that contain some good advice as long as you don’t buy the whole thing hook, line, and sinker. Here’s a few I have found helpful (not in order of value, importance, or anything but as they come to my mind):
1. Shepherding a Child’s Heart (T. Tripp): Good reminder that parents can’t directly seek the goal of making their kids good or in control, but they can be a mirror to help their children see themselves before the face of God. And as kids get older, your discipline methods must move from control to influence.
2. Age of Opportunity (P. Tripp): Don’t be afraid of your teenager. There are ways to connect to the heart of your child even when they are a teenager.
3. Parenting Adolescents (K. Huggins): He has some good chapters on seeing the world through the eyes of your teenager
4. Say Goodbye to whining, complaining, and bad attitudes…In you and your children(Turansky and Miller): This writing team of pastor and nurse have this and another book that emphasis “honor based” parenting.
5. The Explosive Child (R. Greene): Not a Christian text but will get us away from power struggles.
6. Parenting with Love and Logic (Cline & Fay): Not a Christian text but emphasizes the need to build a positive parenting environment. Too often we focus on obedience and not on encouragement; or we allow our child negative moods to show up in ourselves and so we create an environment of stress. This book can give you ideas on how to stay calm.
Notice I didn’t include 3 more famous books (Dare to Discipline, anything by Ross Campbell, anything by the Ezzos). Its not that these books are without their strengths, but each one has its issues. Dobson’s book is good for a particular parent/child issue but is a bit dated; Campbell has great ideas for loving your children but is also not as available; The Ezzos have some pseudoscience in their text and while it works for certain child/parent temperaments, it is problematic for many children). I’m positive that many have been helped by these, but they are not where I would go first.
What are your favorites? Why?
Musings on Faith and Psychology 
Making Children Mind Without Losing Your by Dr. Kevin Leman – Uses discipline with reality applications
Growing Kids God’s Way (AKA) On Becoming Baby Wise by Gary Ezzo – Teaches Kids (and parents) responsibility and structure from day one.
I was very put off by the premise of Growing Kids God’s Way. We made many a joke about Golfing God’s Way, etc. But my wife & I used the less pious Becoming Baby Wise and found it helpful in developing a flexible (key word) routine. I know Ezzo polarizes people. But we’ve seen lots of well-adjusted kids raised using this, and too many bratty attachment parented (usually to an extreme) kids. People can go too far in either direction.
We both found the Tripp books helpful as well.
I like Allender’s How Children Raise Parents.
I’ve read about 30 evangelical parenting books and (sadly) only recommend two. Both are fairly new:
Grace Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel – casts a beautiful vision of parenting our children as God parents you
The Parent You Want to Be by Les and Leslis Parrott – a how-to guide for Kimmel’s book that takes the secular parenting literature (e.g., active listening, Gottman’s emotion coaching, etc.) and runs it through a Christian filter.
I enjoyed Allender’s book, but found it lacking in the practical “how-to” advice I felt I needed as a parent.
I’m a GKGW dropout – it’s not well-suited for any family that struggles with attachment issues. With respect to cavman’s comment, the relevant comparison isn’t between Ezzo and non-Ezzo families. Rather, it’s the attachment parented children as they are versus what they would have been under Ezzo. From observing children at my church, the well-adjusted Ezzo kids typically have moms who are exceptional nurturers, but need crowd control assistance with their larger than average number of children. Given how nurturing these moms are, their children most likely would have done well under any regime.
We agree that the the book by the Parrotts, The Parent You Want to Be presented a useful, straight- forward Christian approach.