“Keep Talking: A Mother-Daughter Guide to the Pre-Teen Years”, By Lynda Madison, Andrews McMeel Publishing, $19.95, 190 pages

The beauty of this gentle book for mothers and daughters is that it places importance on the few years before adolescence. It’s now well-accepted in child development that adolescence is a time of gripping psychological turmoil for girls that too often results in their loss of identity and optimism. Thus, there is increasing emphasis on providing young girls with a kind of psychological inoculation that might help them avoid some of the pitfalls of the teen years. Lynda Madison, whose book comes endorsed by no less than Mary Pipher, author of the best-selling “Reviving Ophelia,” has written this book for mothers and daughters (ages 9 to 12) to read together. The book encourages mothers and daughters to talk about feelings and ideas surrounding the daughter’s growing up with the ultimate goal of making this kind of discussion a habit. Friendships, body changes accompanying puberty, moods, ambitions and family relationships are offered as topics for discussion. It won’t embarrass either mom or daughter, and will undoubtedly help each to understand the other a little better.