It's All in Your Head: A Guide to Understanding Your Brain and Boosting Your Brain Power

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Resource for Gifted Students AND Educators
Review: In planning a comprehensive unit on the brain, I purchased It's All In Your Head (student edition), along with a multitude of additional books. Of all items purchased, IAIYH (we educators love acronyms) proves to be an excellent resource--one I plan to use with all of my gifted students. The text provides basic and general information on a variety of topics: the inner workings of the brain, intelligence, "genius", problem-solving, sleep/dreams, and memory (to name a few). While no chapter provides in-depth, graduate level information, the information presented is clear, concise, and written in such a way that students, parents, and educators will find the book both interesting and engaging. Additoinally, each chapter provides a list of additional resources along with (and this is a bonus) readability ratings (one "*" means an easy-to-read book, while "***" is hard-to-read but "worth the effort"). Sections of the text require minor updating (for instance, the section on Gardner's multiple intelligences--only seven are dicussed), but these omissions are easily taught with supplemental resources. All-in-all, an excellent addition to any gifted educator's library and an excellent read for students. If your budget allows, buy classroom sets and let your students keep the book!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Resource for Gifted Students AND Educators
Review: In planning a comprehensive unit on the brain, I purchased It's All In Your Head (student edition), along with a multitude of additional books. Of all items purchased, IAIYH (we educators love acronyms) proves to be an excellent resource--one I plan to use with all of my gifted students. The text provides basic and general information on a variety of topics: the inner workings of the brain, intelligence, "genius", problem-solving, sleep/dreams, and memory (to name a few). While no chapter provides in-depth, graduate level information, the information presented is clear, concise, and written in such a way that students, parents, and educators will find the book both interesting and engaging. Additoinally, each chapter provides a list of additional resources along with (and this is a bonus) readability ratings (one "*" means an easy-to-read book, while "***" is hard-to-read but "worth the effort"). Sections of the text require minor updating (for instance, the section on Gardner's multiple intelligences--only seven are dicussed), but these omissions are easily taught with supplemental resources. All-in-all, an excellent addition to any gifted educator's library and an excellent read for students. If your budget allows, buy classroom sets and let your students keep the book!

Rating:
Summary: Every child on the planet should read it!!!
Review: It is an excellent source of science plus it introduces children to the greatness of the mind. This book is written for kids from 8 to 16 years of age, I'm a mom and I could not stop reading it once I started!!! I read it in two evenings and it is absolutely wonderful. I wanted to share this with you because I'm hoping that every teacher gets it to their students and every parent gets it for their kids!. It teaches children how important their brain is, it talks to them about the possibilities and capabilities of the brain.

Kids discover:
- How the brain evolved
- What the different parts do
- How many different "intelligences" you have
- What makes a person a genius
- 10 tips to making life easier
- 20 ways to become more creative, thinking outside the box!!!
- The mysteries of the mind

And what I found most important, it tells children how to handle difficult situations. It teaches them to always look at challenges as opportunities to learn something. Your thoughts are your reality, if you think positively you will automatically become better at what ever subject. It gives you tips and tricks to help you boost your brain power, which is a subject that I learned in college and I wish I would had known earlier in my life.

The downside of it is that it was written in 1992, (brain science changes dramatically every year) but since it is intended for kids they mainly talk about the basics which have not changed very much.