Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: After reading so many glowing reviews, this book was a real disappointment. It is very long on self-congratulatory anecdotes on how well this "method" works and how great it is to have an unspoiled child, and very short on concrete examples of what to do. It also contains lots of references to how scary it is and how miserable you'll be if you don't get your child under control by age 2, which is not helpful when the book fails to give many examples of what to do to avoid such dire circumstances.
Rating: 
Summary: A Happy Mother recommends this book
Review: I affectionately refer to this book as my "Parent's manual." The author spent 30 or so years observing children. This book is a compilation of the results of his research explaining what parents did who raised unspoiled happy children, and what mistakes other parents made. It's a great book!
Rating:
Summary: not for those who read "Parents" magazine
Review: I am giving this book as shower gifts to all of my pregnant friends. Many of the books you read today regarding parenting children would lead you to believe that children who are bratty and spoiled just woke up like that one day. Dr. White believes that children have the ability to begin manipulation beginning at around age 5 months, and through experience, I know this is the case. I have been using Dr. White's suggestions and have found that although my child will throw "tantrums" every blue moon (she is two) - they only last a minute, never take place in public, and she knows that what Mama and Daddy says goes and that is that. Not a book for those parents who rationalize unruly behavior with the newfound assumption of the last 20-30 years that children are just "expressing themselves" when they lie on the floor in the Wal-Mart because Mama or Daddy wouldn't let them have some M &M's.
Rating:
Summary: This Book Works!
Review: I bought this book when my son was 4 months old. He is now 4 years old and he has had about one tantrum for each year of his life. Throughout toddlerhood (including the "terrific twos"), people - even strangers - have told me what a wonderful, delightful, well-behaved child my son is. In fact, one single friend of mine told me she never wanted kids and my son is the only child she has ever met that made her think she might be missing something. And most importantly, my son is almost always very happy...he is delightful! I highly recommend this book...but BOTH parents must utilize the methods in the book, or results will not be as good.
Rating: 
Summary: Helping me to have a delightful unspoiled child
Review: I bought this book while I was pregnant 3 years ago. I followed the advice religiously, and as my daughter was going through each stange we used the techniques Burton White explains. Our daughter has been a true joy, and behaves fabulously! I attributed all of this to this book! She never had a terrbile twos due to the sound advice given in this book...it is truely what children need, the structure gives them security in the family to find out who they are without power struggles. So now I give everyone I know this book...and I have had no complaints from family and friends who all agree it is GREAT!
Rating:
Summary: True testament to this books validity!
Review: I bought this book while I was pregnant 3 years ago. I followed the advice religiously, and as my daughter was going through each stange we used the techniques Burton White explains. Our daughter has been a true joy, and behaves fabulously! I attributed all of this to this book! She never had a terrbile twos due to the sound advice given in this book...it is truely what children need, the structure gives them security in the family to find out who they are without power struggles. So now I give everyone I know this book...and I have had no complaints from family and friends who all agree it is GREAT!
Rating:
Summary: interesting research, but a poorly written book
Review: I devoured this book when I first bought it and my child was a newborn. I felt armed and ready to avoid spoiling him. I though I could avoid tantrums and disobedience if I followed White's advice. Well, reality is somewhat different. First of all, the book is poorly written. White repeats his set-up in two or three different ways in each section, then offers a modicum of advice that doesn't nearly go far enough. He leaves a parent without options when his meagre suggestions don't work the first time. and to make matters worse, he implies that if his advice doesn't work the first time, then your kid is a brat and it is the parents' fault. Reality has shown me that all kids go through rough times in different stages and that your work is NOT finished by age 24 months! My son never had tantrums until he turned two, and he still doesn't have full-blown tantrums. However, he does become angry when he doesn't get his way and my husband and I have had to walk out of restaurants on occasion. I know a couple of spoiled kids, and my sons behavior doesn't approach theirs, yet I find little room for a continuum in White's book. Your kid is either delightful almost all the time, or disagreeable almost all the time. What am I supposed to do when he misbehaves and I correct him and he immediatly wants a hug? Turn away? Hug him and talk to him? What if he does the same thing he was corrected for five minutes later? Silence from this book. It is not a bad book. I learned an awful lot from it, but be prepared for White to make you feel like a failure as a parent, and to speak of your child as a failure, if he or she is a reasonably well-behaved -- yet rambunctious -- 2-year old.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed, for the most part.
Review: I didn't agree with most of what Burton L. White has to say. I found the book far too theoretical. Very little practical advice. All in all, I found the book rather boring and dry. To me, this book is very overrated. Most parenting books that I have read, I have found extremely useful - "The Difficult Child," "Parenthood by Proxy," all the books by the Eyres, etc. This was not at all useful to me.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for everyone.
Review: I have read this book cover to cover and am constantly referring to its companion The New First Three Years of Life. I have used most of the techniques Mr White recommends, and find them to be very helpful. I find the information to be easily accessible and somewhat intuitive. I am especially thankful for the chapters about the "intentional cry for company", and believe that I am on my way to having a delightful two year old. Mr White writes that power struggles begin at a very young age and even in the first year their are techniques that you can use to set limits. However, I don't give it 5 stars even though I don't know what I'd do without these books. The writing is very repetiive at times and the graphs are difficult to interpret. I have not used all of the techniques, because I don't believe I needed to. In the end I think these are books that every parent should read, and take away what they feel comfortable with.
Rating:
Summary: I am so glad I found this book!!!!
Review: I have the nicest toddler I know, get compliments all the time on how reasonable and well behaved, confident and happy he seems to be, and I think that the advice in this book has been very important in achieving this so far. This book only deals with children up until 3 years old, since that is the age range the author's research covered. The advice is based on years of in-home observation of many many families, watching babies develop through the first few years of life, so it isn't just the opinions of a pediatrician, or a parent, or an educator. The parenting practices he recommends are the ones that they saw work over and over in many different real families. This book advises some very simple straightforward tactics, and advises you to stick to them over and over and over again, since a normal healthy child will test you over and over again to see if you will cave in, and how much power s/he has. You don't need a lot of options, you just need to stick to a few that work, and in my experience (with a willful kid, who was not a placid baby!), these work very well without making the child discouraged or inhibited in bad ways. And, he didn't make me feel at all guilty, I wasn't bored by the writing, and I didn't find it hard to look things up - the book is organized by age stages, so you can just look at the chapter that covers the age your child currently is. Another thing - his recommendations on toys and entertaining a baby are the best I've seen. He makes simple cheap toy recommendations, tells you what a baby really wants to be doing during each phase, and made it much easier for me to keep my son entertained!
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