Rating: 
Summary: Very interesting
Review: This book gives so much wonderful info, and after reading it, I really feel that I know how to give my child a leg up in life.
The only qualification I'd give--you really have to like biology to get through this book. It reads almost like a bio textbook--it is not a light read, and frankly, it is not for the person who doesn't "get" science.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent insight into the brain & the mind
Review: This is truly an amazing book. I recommend starting on this book few months before the baby arrives. It gives insight into every aspect of neurological development right from the embryo stage to 2 years postnatal. As parents it powers you will great ideas and knowledge of how to handle kids at various stages of development, what toys would make most sense to get, what conditions will be favourable for healthy brain development. And in moments of frustation a logical explanation to why your baby is so helpless.
I must warn that this book gets a little technical on terms & terminology which might take getting used to.. but once u'r over that, this is great reading. A must have for even would be parents and parents of kids under 2 years.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Parenting Book
Review: This book is for the parent who wants to know all the "Whys." I have identical twins, so it is very interesting to me to see why their personalities might be different. Identical twins are used in many experiments, so I found this book especially interesting. My mother-in-law is also a pschologist and did many "experiements" with my husband (wish they had video cameras back then -- would have been neat to see). :) My husband and I have always been fascinated with child development since our children were born. This answered all our questions!It is a very technical, detailed book, but it is not too far over an average parent's head to get something out of it. I did find myself skipping over some of the parts that got bogged down in details (I just want to get to the point sometimes), but I would get the main idea. My husband and I found this book while searching for a more scientific book on brain development. We were watching a series on TLC that showed different experiements done with children and when children acquire specific skills and why. We tried finding it again without success, so we searched for a book instead. You can find tons of books that tell you when your child should do what, but they don't tell why and what is really going on in their heads. This book will explain all that!! You will even learn things like why toddlers should drink whole milk until the age of 2! It is broken up into the different senses as well as being chronological, which I found really easy to follow. This will definitely make you a better parent. As an educator myself, I find it fascinating just to have the knowledge, and I feel it is important for all parents to have this knowledge. You will learn how to stimulate your child at different ages so that his/her brain develops to its fullest. You and your child will be happier and more relaxed just having the information contained in this book. The only regret I have is not having read it sooner! I had all the other parenting books, but I never felt fulfilled reading them. I didn't want a list of milestones, I wanted to know why they do milestones when they do. This is the only parenting book you need! I recommend reading it before your children are born, but it is never too late to read it! Mine were 2 when I got this book!
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Excellent, A MUST Read
Review: If you are pregnant or thinking about starting a family I definitely recommend that you buy What's Going on in There? by Lise Eliot. This book is very informative and should be eccential to your prenatal (and even post-natal) reading. Eliot ia a neurobiologist and a mother of three, so not only does she provide more than enough scientific information but she supplies plenty of personal anecdotes involing her children. Unlike most books of this sort that divide the book into ages (0-3 months), Eliot divides her book into developmental stages from start(in uetero) to finish (postnatal) and head to toe. Therefore she will discuss a certain developmental task a chapter but in that chapter covers that development from emergence to completion, which in some cases spans several years. At first you might think that a book that is well over 500-pages on child development a bit hefty but in alll actuality it is quite an easy read. That being said I studied molecular/cell bio in college so because of my background education this book was a lot easier to read. Does one have to be and expert in biology in order to understand this book, I don't think so. Eliot presents her views and scientific evidence in a strait forward manner that anyone that has had high school biology should be able to understand. The Chapters are as Follows:
(1) Nature vs Nurture? It's all in the Brain
(2) The Basic Biology of Brain Development
(3) Prenatal Influences on the Developing Brain
(4) How Birth Affects the Brain
(5) The Importance of Touch
(6) Why Babies Love to Be Bounced: The Precocious Sense of Balance and Motion
(7) The Early World of Smell
(8) Taste, Milk, and the Origins of Food Preference
(9) Wiring Up the Visual Brain
(10) How Hearing Evolves
(11) Motor Milestones
(12) Social-Emotional Growth
(13) The Emergence of Memory
(14) Language and the Developing Brain
(15) How Intelligence Grows in the Brain
(16) Nature, Nurture, and Sex Differences in Intellectual Development
(17) How to Raise a Smarter Child Some of you might be tempted to skip the first 16 chapters and go for the last one, I don't recommend doing this. Although the last chapter suggests that she put all the secrets to making your child smarter, actually I think that the message from Eliot is not for smarter kids but smarter parents. It is our resposibility as parents to foster our children's development, through interacting/ bonding, communicating and play, ths child does a lot of learning by observing us, and it is from us that they learn how to handle the pressures of the world. Which comes to Eliot talking about the Nature vs Nurture debate. This book does not advocate one way or the other, but BOTH. We are in the age now where scientists are tracking down the human genome trying to figure out what is it about our DNA that makes us, well us. Basically, DNA is the foundation that makes us who we are, giving us the foundation to grow, but without environmental pressures (both good and bad) to either foster or hinder our development. For example; let's take height a "normal" child (one born without autosomal defects which can lead to Dwarfism) growing up in an environment where there is poor nutrition either due to famine or poverty has less of a chance of becoming tall than a similar child that has had the benefit of eating foods that are fortified and that are bountiful. However, with certain genetic disorders like Dwarfism not matter how much positive pressure(i.e. nutrition) there will be little effect. Eliot does an excellent job of transitioning from one chapter to the next. Thus I recommend reading it cover to cover. I also recommend reading it more then once, it is very useful to use as a reference, albeit not the best reference book on babies nor is it the worst.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for a parent interested in baby's mind & brain
Review: I really enjoyed this book. It's well written, informative, and downright interesting. Much of the information is presented in the form of results of studies; not just rules of thumb. For example, the first chapter has useful details about prenatal influences on the brain. There's a summary of research results on how caffeine affects development, and similar sections for alchohol, aspartame, MSG, and other (harmless and not-so-harmless) things that parents-to-be often worry about. Then there's a fascinating series of chapters on how sensory development occurs. With a chapter title like "The Importance of Touch" you just know it's chock full of good recommendations. Similarly, "Wiring Up the Visual Brain" explains how visual perception develops. The most interesting nugget is that the visual cortex needs visual stimulation during critical periods to develop some abilities such as depth perception (stereo or binocular vision). Hence an infant with untreated vision problems may miss the critical period (usually from age 3 months to 6 months) and not develop stereo vision. Stepping back from the details, an interesting fact about development is that different abilities don't all start at once; they come online at different ages so your baby can adapt to them one at a time. So when you notice changes in your baby's behavior or wants, it may be because a new ability has suddenly kicked in, and the baby needs to have it stimulated. It's fascinating stuff, and useful as well!
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