Wally's Stories: Conversations in the Kindergarten

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: I'm supposed to read this book for a child development course I'm taking here at school. That is, I'm supposed to read it a month from now, but I'm reading it for pleasure. For pleasure! I never read for pleasure, but I can't put this book down. Full of anecdotal material from a kindergarten class, this is as truthful a look at kids as will ever be published.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: I'm supposed to read this book for a child development course I'm taking here at school. That is, I'm supposed to read it a month from now, but I'm reading it for pleasure. For pleasure! I never read for pleasure, but I can't put this book down. Full of anecdotal material from a kindergarten class, this is as truthful a look at kids as will ever be published.

Rating:
Summary: If You Want To Learn....
Review: If you are willing to learn from children, I recommend this fascinating book. Paley's taped conversations and stories from her Kindergarten classes reveal the engaged young minds at work; their creativity and inventiveness is genuine and persistent; experience is never so important as imagination.

The narratives that the children invent reveal how their minds work, how they search for meaning, and how the best explanations need not be the most rational.

I recommend this book for anyone who has children or who works with children. Also, I recommend it for anyone who is intrigued about why we search for meaning, why we tell stories, why we invent and create. "Out of the mouths of babes...."

Rating:
Summary: If You Want To Learn....
Review: If you are willing to learn from children, I recommend this fascinating book. Paley's taped conversations and stories from her Kindergarten classes reveal the engaged young minds at work; their creativity and inventiveness is genuine and persistent; experience is never so important as imagination.

The narratives that the children invent reveal how their minds work, how they search for meaning, and how the best explanations need not be the most rational.

I recommend this book for anyone who has children or who works with children. Also, I recommend it for anyone who is intrigued about why we search for meaning, why we tell stories, why we invent and create. "Out of the mouths of babes...."

Rating:
Summary: A New Perspective on Children
Review: This book is a tool for exploring the minds of young children. Rather than analyze the behavior of her kindergarten students, Paley gives us examples of their actual conversations and actions. She tries to gently guide her students to come to their own conclusions about the world and reality, rather than present her own ideas as the truth. That is why this book paints such a realistic and vivid picture of how a child's mind works. Through her stories, Paley shows us how and why children have a different concept of reality than adults. To a child, something is realistic if he can picture it in his head. Therefore, it is perfectly reasonable that a mouse could be stronger than a man, or that Wally (Paley's most imaginative and unruly student) could grow up to be a mother lion. This book is a great resource for anyone who works with children, writes children's books, or has young children. It will give you a whole new perspective on children's thoughts and behavior.