When a relationship or marriage flounders, it can be one of the most painful events of a person’s life, but when children are involved, sorting out the custody issues can increase problems by several orders of magnitude. Joshua McDowell knows this pain well; as a single father who successfully gained custody of his son after several bruising battles in the courts, he’s seen first-hand the difficulty which many parents, fathers in particular, can face. In the introduction to his book, The Tools You Need to be Successful, he states that he wrote the book to help others avoid the painful struggles he went through. While his motives are excellent, and his passion clear, the resultant book has a few issues that prevent it from being effective.

While McDowell has little trouble expressing himself and his opinions clearly, readers won’t get far into the book before noticing it needs serious proofreading, an issue that should have been addressed before going to press, particularly in light of the author’s ready admission of having a learning disability. Spelling issues abound, which could be fixed fairly easily, but there are also numerous instances of the same information being repeated again and again, with only slight variations in the sentences. There’s no doubt about McDowell’s earnestness, love for his son and faith in God, but this information – while personally illuminating – doesn’t go far in shedding light on the book’s stated purpose.

 More troubling, the book has serious structural issues. The title of the book itself is confusing, in that it doesn’t identify what the “tools” of the book are supposed to be helping readers to be successful at, and once readers get into the book, it’s a long dry spell before any tools become apparent. By this reviewer’s count, the author’s passionate opinions and repeated thoughts on parenting and faith – which ran perilously close to becoming platitudes – didn’t yield to serious facts and helpful information until Chapter 14, which is far too late to be useful to readers needing help in their own custody battles. Those who get that far will be rewarded with numerous documents, resources and straightforward explanations of various concepts such as a guardian ad litem, but having to plow through a third of the book to get to that point is too much to ask.

As a parent, this reviewer can sympathize with McDowell’s troubles, appreciate his devotion to parenting and admire his tenacity. However, as it presently stands,The Tools You Need to be Successful is not the best vehicle to express these qualities, or help other parents in similar situations find their way through to custodial success as the author did. One can only hope that future revisions of this book are heavily edited and restructured to allow the author’s noble intentions to reach fruition.