I gave this two stars, though three might have been ok. Gopnik's book is a collection of some of the latest science on cognition; some involving children, some adults, some non-human primates, and some other animals. What the book fails to do is deliver on the title; the book should be titled, "Summary of current cognition studies" and include the following warning: "Note that chapters are padded and 75% of the writing is superfluous." This could have been edited down into something much more concise and informative. The book is a light and breezy introduction to developmental psychology and its relationship to a handful of philosophical questions. Anyone seriously interested in philosophy or psychology will probably not get much out of the book and would do better to turn to the primary literature, but overall the book will be of interest to non-technical readers interested in getting a sense of the surprisingly complex and complicated inner lives of babies.
Amazing and wonderful insights into the minds of babies. A great read for Montessorians!
—shadowblob
Disappointing. I guess I expected too much from this work based on the title.
—jentenerowicz
Interesting, but not as profound as I had hoped.
—nito
Reading in fits and starts.
—Megs
