50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family

If you’ve dreamed of moving to a wonderful city or town where your family can live, work and play, 50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family, Third Edition, is the perfect place to start. Are you looking for a slower pace? Are you ready to turn in your sweaters for SPF30 lotion? Do you know which city’s mission statement is "To be the premier city in Florida in which to live, work and raise a family"? (Coral Springs, Florida.).

From family-friendly small towns to large metropolises, you’ll get the inside scoop on what your potential new hometown would offer. 50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family, Third Edition is loaded with the most current, useful information. For each community spotlighted, you’ll find everything you need to know about:

Jobs and business opportunities. Education—from pre-school to universities Crime statistics Climate Family recreation—annual events, parks, and natural wonders What homes cost and what you get for your money. Cost of living and tax structures

Plus, user-friendly chapters provide help to prepare for a move, expert advice on how to get your finances together for a successful relocation, and how to check out schools—and get the kids psyched for the big event.

Using the facts in this book, blended with the unique characteristics of your own family, inquiring parents will know where the best places are for them. 50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family, Third Edition is a must-read for anyone considering relocating to a friendlier, kinder community.

Kathleen Shaputis is well experienced in the headlined lifestyles of the baby boomer generation as she balances a career in writing, professional speaking and training in her post-parental housing of boomerang children and grandchildren. Kathleen worked in municipal government for 14 years and knows the importance of a balanced community and the effort it takes to run one. She is the author of two other books.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

Very lacking, 2007-03-21
My purpose in purchasing this book was to compare it to other resources I've been evaluating - with a primary focus on Education. I've only reviewed the book for 15 minutes and I'm highly disappointed in the lack of factual data.

There is a chapter on "How to Evaluate Schools" that outlines what anyone with common sense - would already be asking themselves. Yet, there are no answers or reference to where one can find the answers to the questions. For instance, the Writer points out, the reader should 'ask how the school is financed and the budget determined'. Yet no point of reference is given. There are online resources to compare schools across the nation. A book is published by the National Education Association, "Rankings and Estimates", that lists a variety of budgetary, population, and other data (more than any reader would want). The Department of Education, School Matters, and National Center for Education Statistics are all good online references, to help assess rather the `answers' to the `questions' you are asking, are within the National Norm or even good.

Further evidence that the Writer does not have factual info is brought to light, as the Writer claims, "one of the reasons to move to Albuquerque (ABQ), is the Excellent Schools".

In contrast:
(a) ABQ Public Schools, (APS) - rank average on National Assessments compiled by the "National Center For Education Statistics"
(b) I've attended APS - they were approximately 4 years behind, the NY public school I transferred from in 10th Grade - Example: APS Senior year required reading consisted of books that were required reading in NY's Freshman year.
(c) The Writer contends, that APS has had '21 Excellence or Blue Ribbon Schools'. "Blue Ribbon Schools", are categorized as schools that perform well academically in high poverty areas. There is a lot of poverty here, (not to mention gangs and crime). Ergo, it is no surprise that APS would be classified as high ranking, for a poverty stricken area.

Side note: If you are buying a home in ABQ that is at the median range of "$141,000", I highly recommend you also consider purchasing life insurance.

In close: It is highly disappointing that a "teacher" could not compile better educational information.








41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

Good idea, appalling result, 2006-04-08
Ms. Shaputis apparently assembled puff literature from 50 Chambers of Commerce around the country and repurposed it into a book. What you get is superficial, uncritical . . and wrong.

The median house prices are years out of date. It is incorrect, for example, that half of the homes in Indianapolis or Bangor are less than $100,000, or that half the homes in Reno are less than $160,000 - figures contradicted by the National Association of Realtors quarterly reports on home sales.

By the way, Bangor - in northern Maine - doesn't get 94 days of 90-degree weather reported in the book; more like 30.


4 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

Excellent starting point for relocation!, 2006-02-28
I was so glad to see that there was finally an updated version of this book on the market.

If you are looking for informative facts about a family-friendly city, this book is extremely helpful. It includes almost every aspect of living in a city from schooling, medical care, job market, recreation, environment, climate, etc. It is a good source if you are researching an area unfamiliar to you.

Of course, any person with common sense will only use this as an aide on which places to visit prior to packing up and moving the family.

I also found it extremely helpful that, in this day and age, website addresses for municipalities, utilities and schools had been added.

For anyone looking to move, this is a great starting point. Just be sure to follow-up with your own research on the subjects that are important to your own family's needs.


45 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

Disappointing, 2006-02-26
Overall found this to be a collection of general purpose advice (don't eat the yellow snow), and somewhat outdated generic information about 50 places. Having lived in one of the top picks for 5 years, I found the book's description of little value to someone trying to decide if it is a good place to live and work. Maybe I'm being unfair, but I was expecting something with detail on the order of the Places Rated Almanac series. There was no such detail. The CD ROM focus seemed to be on the 50 Gay-Friendly places. I'm no homophobe, but what the H#!! does Gay-Friendly have to do with families? So overall, very disappointing book. Check it out from a library before you buy.

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