Both me and my wife have been reading this book regularly to understand our children better. It is both interesting and practical. What I like best about it is that its recommndations as to how to raise children are mostly based on experience and research, not on anyone's opinions.

And one more thing: my two-year-old daughter LOVES the pictures inside!

Everybody know: Zanzotto is one of the most important contemporary Italian poets. Extremely intellectual but, at the same time, fun and enjoyable to read, he leads you to the intricated and weird labyrints of language (everyday speech, children stumbling groans,intellectual and bureaucratical jargon, foreigners'unanderstandable utterings...) until you get lost with him; or at least it's what you think for a moment, just a short second, until something comes to your mind like a lightning: "Gosh, he knows where we are!" Though hard to translate, Zanzotto wise bric-a-brac creations are now available to the English native speaker reader. Don't miss the chance: get lost with him, you will finally recognize the voices buzzlin' in your brain!

Several years ago, I used this book in a study of gifted children. It was a fascinating look at the lives of child prodigies. But I'm sure that many will identify with the statement made by one man who was asked about what became of the Quiz Kids: " I hope they all turned out to be garbage collectors!"
It would be a tragic waste if that man had gotten his wish. But that is a realistic summary of the the feelings that many people have towards child prodigies. The photos of Ruth Duskin Feldman as a child reminded me of an overacheiving girl I once knew, and any body who has ever suffered the childhood indignity of verbal comparisons between themselves and someone who was considered more brilliant might not wish such children very well.
Of course, they didn't all turn out to be garbage collectors, and they can count a Nobel Prize Winner (James D. Watson) among them, as well as an actress (the late Vanessa Brown), a Jesuit Priest (Jack Lucal), and actor and dialect coach (Bob Easton), and a producer (Harve Bennett) among their ranks. On the the other hand there was the early death of one of the most promising Quiz Kids, Gerard Darrow, for whom certain social and academic needs could never really be met.
As is the case with many child celebrities, some of these Quiz Kids feel that their parents exploited them. As a Jew, Feldman discusses the bias against her and other Quiz Kids of the same faith. The story of how the non-Jewish Quiz Kids were sent to shake hands with the anti-semitic Henry Ford during a visit before she and the others could, in order to curry favor with the famed auto maker, was quite an attention-getter.
Duskin also sheds light on the sexism of the time, stating that girls often had to allow themselves to be deferential to boys on issues in order to continue to appear "feminine".One girl even advised her not to appear too brilliant if she wanted to get dates.Thank Heaven times have changed!
What Ruth Duskin has ultimately given us is a longitudinal study of gifted children that is sincerely told. No one could accuse her of being too arrogant about her prodigiousness, especially when she discusses the rejection she suffered.
Incidentally, I myself did very well on the report in which I used this book, and would highly recommend it to others. It's a fascinating study.

The book comprises the former editions 'Shema' and 'At an Uncertain Hour' as well as eighteen previously uncollected poems. The poems combine a sometimes distanced stance with a very intimate and poignant emotion. Levi manages to capture a sense of the futility of life in the face of evil; the fact that he survived the Holocaust when so many others did not haunts him throughout the collection. 'Unfinished Business', written a few years before his sudden death, describes a man preparing his boss for a note of resignation. He leaves unfinished business - a kiss, a neglected client, an unwritten book that would alleviate all fear and doubts. The innumerable duties and joys of life that can never be completed because this is a man encompassed by the guilt of survival. 'Monday'(1946)moves from the image of a train with only one route and one direction, to the horse whose vision is blocked by shafts on wither side, to the man who lives in solitude, believing time has run its course. The stanzas are short and bleak. But there is profound depth to the brevity. I haven't read them all - I only bought the book today and read it on the train home, but so far, it looks like an important volume and I recommend it.

I have used this book for my 200 level course in Human Growth & Development at our local community college and the students have said how much they have enjoyed the book and the course. The authors took the time to include information about many different cultures and this was very helpful.

What could be more attracitve? Here's a book about travel in countries all over the globe, and it's made up of conversations between two practical men of the world. A theme--engineers construct things, authors construct stories--ties the chapters together.

A great idea, but, alas, one that has been turned into a dreadful book. We're warned in the very beginning that the speaker might, at times, be a bit imperfect: repetetive, full of himself, prone to get lost in details. But the first chapter shows him, despite these short-comings, to be fascinating. Nonetheless, in the chapters that follow, he turns out to be every bit as insufferable as we'd been told in that first page.

Each chapter is filled with mind-numbing details of construction projects, only relieved, at times, with brief passages that are more interesting. Levi's book does justice neither to world travel nor to Italian literature.

Excellent series of vignettes/stories generally related within the novel by a crane/derrick rigger to the author, a chemist. For those with no inclination to industrial engineering and chemistry, this book makes the two subjects seem interesting, and uniquely identifies them with the human condition. Quite beautiful.

There are some people who you can never hear enough of. Levi is certainly one of those. He combines one of the greates talents as a writer in this century with a wisdom uncommon for any age.

This book is not an adventure story in the typical sence of the word, but reading it is an adventure, and I for one am a better man for having opened its covers.

I don't think that Levi has ever written a book that I would only read once. This book, I look forward to revisting many times over. The maximum length of this review is one thousnd words. If all those words were supperlatives, I would not come close to doing this book justice.