She's Leaving Home: Letting Go As Daughter Goes To College [Hardcover]

Connie Jones (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2002

Each year, more than 1.5 million American families see their children off to their first year of college. It's a momentous day in the lives of high school graduates and their parents, and during this transitional time, parents' emotions include everything from anxiety to hope, guilt to pride, fear to relief. In She's Leaving Home, author Connie Jones chronicles two year in her own life, from the days when her daughter, Cary, fielded bids from more than a hundred colleges to her first year as a student at Smith College in Massachusetts. A story of spiritual journey and growth, the intimate, journal-like essays perfectly capture one mother's love and letting go of a daughter as she transforms into an adult. She's Leaving Home is a personal memoir that parents will relate to in the same way readers responded to Anne Lamott's Operating Instructions: A Journal Of My Son's First Year.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing (March 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0740723464
• ISBN-13: 978-0740723469
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #907,299 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Connie Jones is a professor of American History at Tidewater Community College in Virginia Beach, Va. A seminary student and a postulant for the priesthood in the Episcopal Church, she has coedited textbooks for use in a U.S. history survey course and coauthored a study guide for a U.S. history text. She has a Ph.D. in history from Duke University and lives in Norfolk, Virginia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book helped me feel normal, October 19, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: She's Leaving Home: Letting Go As Daughter Goes To College (Hardcover)

After leaving my 18 year old daughter at a college 9 hours away from home this fall, I didn't anticipate how hard it would be. I was excited for her to have this experience in a great college town. I was unprepared for how I would feel like I had lost a body part, how I had to keep reminding myself that she didn't die, she's just away at college. This book verbalized many of my exact feelings about this experience. It was very helpful to me and made me feel better. The daughter in the book reminded me of my own vegetarian, jewelry wearing, intelligent, independent daughter. I recommend this book to other parents going through this life passage.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Book has a strong religious perspective, November 21, 2006

By 

J.A. "Another Mom" (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: She's Leaving Home: Letting Go As Daughter Goes To College (Hardcover)

If you are not a Christian, just be aware that the book is very oriented to a Christian foundation. I am not making a judgment about that, simply highlighting the fact. Each chapter starts with a prayer to Jesus Christ. In none of the reviews I read was this mentioned. As someone of another faith, I was very taken aback when I received the book. It did not feel appropriate to my values and faith perspective and wish that this information had been clearly indicated before I purchased the book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for parents with kids going off to college, October 31, 2005

By 

A reader "Just another parent" (Akron, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: She's Leaving Home: Letting Go As Daughter Goes To College (Hardcover)

Connie Jones captures the feelings and emotions of all parents with kids going off to college. My wife and I found it amazingly similar to our own experience with our daughter that left for college 2 months ago. The book helped us to understand that most of what we are feeling is normal and shared by all parents. She also brings a great perspective of the bigger picture that all parents face in the journey from birth to college to death with our children. We really loved the book and recommend it to all parents with college age kids. Just a great book..............