"Dan Heischman offers a thoughtful, often courageous, always heartening book about the art of helping young people become healthy adults. I hope parents, teachers, and students will read this important book together, sharing ideas about the practice of good influence and imagining ways of furthering each other on this journey." --Paula Lawrence Wehmiller, educator, author, and Episcopal priest "In a society that values perpetual youth, immediate gratification, and being cool instead of being adult, young people long for mature, genuine, and compassionate adults in their lives. This well-grounded, richly storied, practical and inspiring book is a gift to every parent, teacher, principal, professor, and chaplain who is willing to 'be there' for the next generation." --Sharon Daloz Parks, author of Big Questions, Worthy Dreams and Leadership Can Be Taught " Good Influence is a powerful exploration of the prerogatives and responsibilities of adulthood. Heischman's poignant and personal work underscores the enormous rewards of risking young people's disapproval for the sake of their growth. I can't imagine a parent or teacher who won't be instructed, moved, and uplifted." --James Alan Astman, Headmaster, Oakwood School "This is compelling reading on so many levels: professional, personal, and spiritual.

It is time for parents, educators, and all who have a role in modeling for youth the path to maturity to start acting like adults. This book is the Julia Child recipe for responsible cooking when it comes to the nourishment of our children." --Patrick F. Bassett, President, National Association of Independent Schools "In Good Influence Dan Heischman has given us a book of wisdom. Like Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, the wisdom literature of the Bible, it shares with new generations the ways of wisdom born of lived faith and time-tested experience, and will profoundly influence for the good all who read it." -- Michael B. Curry, Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina "Worth the read for anyone who is trying to be an effective mentor." -- The Midwest Book Review "Heischman richly amplifies his points in illustrative accounts of his own experiences with students and their parents that are instructional and humanizing.

" -- Anglican Theological Review.