Childhood Book Reviews Samples For Students

Book review of ‘Childhood and Society’ by Erik Erikson – Book review, Literary and Psychological Analysis, Reflections on reading the book

[The author’s name]

Abstract

This paper will present you with the book review of ‘Childhood and Society’ by Erik Erikson. The review will focus on the analysis of its context in literary and psychological terms, its contribution to the field of psychology as well as on the reflections deriving from its reading. A short presentation of the book’s structure will be given providing you with a highlight of the basic elements of each chapter. Emphasis will be given on the psychological theory developed in this book on behalf of Erik Erikson, a widely acknowledged psychologist and psychoanalyst who has developed ...

In her first sentence of her very powerful story, Linda Brent writes: "I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away." What did she mean by this statement, and explain how this could possibly be true for anyone born into the world of slavery?
Slavery was a most despicable institution in the United States and as everyone seemed to accept it until it boiled down to a Civil War, the Deep South lorded it over millions of black Africans who suffered greatly and terribly due to their exposure to slavery. In ...

Introduction

This is actually a book written by Michael Kimmel and published in 2008. It covers culture for the young men transitioning from the adolescence to adulthood. He in fact interviewed 400 men between 16 to 26 years and observed a certain trend whereby these young men increasingly delayed their adulthood. He notes that in the year 1960, approximately 70% of the American men had by the time they reached 30 years, finished their educations, found themselves a partner and started to work. By comparison, in modern times not more than a third a third of men achieve these milestones by their thirties.
He ...

Origin of Species: A Reflection

Darwin (1859) offers a description to the events that are shaping the biological nature while resulting to the creation of a new species and biodiversity. Darwin argues that animal and plants characteristics are shaped and modified by the intervening environmental conditions. Single species of organisms may lose common features when exposed to varied intervening environments, while those that are placed in the same environment would retain the common features.
Similar variations are known to effect under nature. Darwin argues that such changes are what have resulted in the biodiversity, as organisms are treated to varied environmental conditions. Naturally, organisms are ...

Book Review - Persepolis

In the graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, the reader follows the author through an autobiographical look at her own life, though interestingly, this is done through the use of the comic book format. Growing up in Iran, Satrapi had to remain innocent and dignified, despite the horrors that were happening around her. Due to the enigmatic, strange, quirky and often outrageous directions her life had taken her, Satrapi decided to use the comic book format in order to tell her childhood story. This lent it a heightened, visually intriguing spin that turned the horrific and out-of-control world of her ...

The paragraphs 211-212 of J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye are one of the most beautiful and symbolic portions of this coming of age epic. Allie signifies that part of Holden’s childhood that he is unwilling to leave behind. On the other hand, in the form of his sister, Phoebe, Holden faces the present, a doorway to the future. By accepting the loss of Allie and finding Phoebe, Holden symbolically accepts his own transition into adulthood. The boy who was so uncomfortable in his surroundings some time ago is now at peace with what life has to ...

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood is a comic by Marjane Satrapi, portraying her childhood in Iran. The book is in autobiographic form and revolves around the life of writer in Iran and gives amazing and unseen pictures of Iran during the time of Islamic revolution. Title of the book Persepolis is inspired by the name of ancient empire of Persia, the book is a bestseller and several pictures have been made on the stories of the book.
The writer of the book was born in Iran and in her childhood saw dethroning of emperors, Iran Iraq war and revolutionists preparation ...

What does this story teach us about how the Apache see the world?

My favorite story is that of the the white painted women, she is a heroine and the mother of the warrior twins, those who helped make the word fit for human beings. It is a metaphorical journey among the people and I feel that this helps the female children to understand their place in the Apache life, this story explains what kind of life she will endure and also what her place is in the matrilineal society. It explains the four stages of her life, this story also teaches us that the Apache people see their work as a round universe similar ...

How do the settings in "The Found Boat" parallel the stages of growth, the temptations, and crossed boundaries of the children?

In the short story, "The Found Boat" the author Alice Munro uses various writing skills to portray the various struggle five children encounter. The story is set in an imagery town called Jubilee, which is, nearby Wingham, Western Ontario which is Munro’s home town. The storyline of the short story is mainly focused on the diverse experiences that young individuals endure. Through the use of the key characters, Clayton, Frank, Carol, Bud and Eva Munro vividly illustrate ...

Book review: Asperger syndrome and adolescence

Bolick in her book, Asperger syndrome and adolescence, discusses the various challenges that the teenagers especially students experience during adolescence. Her main focus is on to the teenagers who suffer from Asperger syndrome and as well as sustain through the changes of puberty in the institutional environment. In most teenagers, Aspies begin to take more control of their personality traits in the period of adolescence (Bolick, 2004). The teenagers affected by this syndrome will desire social interactions and yet feel secluded than ever. This is for the main reason that the teenagers experience mood swings caused by the quick, ...

Chapter reviews

Chapter reviews

Chapter 7 Summary: Cognition

Readers can also learn the weaknesses of Piaget’s theory through its critics who look at it as a theory that under-estimates the development of children which can be beyond the factors examined by him. The chapter reading also shows that other modern constructivist theories look at the causes to different cognitive skills. The sociocultural perspective by Vygotsky's looks at the social and cultural influences as the main causes of cognitive development in children. On the other hand, Fischer's dynamic skills framework looks at skill levels as the main course for development (Sigelman, & Rider, 2014).

Important topic: Aging and cognitive skills

I tend ...

Chapter 1 What Is Evolution?

In Coyne’s Why Evolution Is True (2009), the debate between the theories of creationism and evolution is introduced. The two theories take vastly different approaches to explain how and why the world is full of the many variations of plants, animals, insects, reptiles, and human beings. The theory of creationism explains these things by intelligent design. This is where divine intervention takes place and an almighty, omnipotent god creates all beings, all of a sudden, with all of the variations needed to survive in the environment that they currently live. There is no macroevolution, only slight adaptations of ...

Marjane Satrapi’s book Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, published by Pantheon Books of New York, NY in 2003, tells the author and artist’s own story of her childhood in Iran during the 1970s and 1980s during revolutionary times in her home country. Told in graphic novel or comic book form, Satrapi’s book illustrates what it was like to be a young girl growing up in Iran as regimes and social standards underwent monumental change. Presented from a young girl’s point of view, she navigates not only the typical hazards of growing up, but also encounters the violence ...

Part 1: Subject Matter

Love and relationships appears to be a subject that touched the heart of Gary. Most of his poems revolve around the subject of love and the efforts of people to relate with those around them. The innocence of love relationships especially to young children who are growing and the fears that the adults have when they think of rejection has been perfectly addressed in Gary’s poems. The poem, oranges focus on two lovebirds in their early teens as they make sacrifices just to be with each other. The innocence and determination that has been displayed in their relationships through ...

Review and Analysis of the book ‘Their Eyes were watching God’ – Presentation of the book’s main thematic plot and its meaning – Review of the book’s writing style and influence on its readers – Exploration of the connections between the book’s main thematic idea and the educational policies – Exploration and research of the book’s connection with the educational field – Exploration and research of the book’s contribution to the teaching methods and the learning outcomes of an educational environment
[The author’s name]

Part 1 Information about the author and the book

The book ‘Their Eyes were watching God’ was published in 1937. The time ...

Introduction

Richard Hoffman wrote Half the House: Memoir, and it was first published in the year 1995. The book was then republished in 2005 with an afterword added to the memoir in 1996. Hoffman claimed that the book was nonfiction and the scenes described by the book were experiences he underwent in his childhood life. However, the names of the characters had been altered safe for the name of the football coach that had sexually molested him in his childhood. The book describes the hardships Hoffman faced in the hands of the ruthless society, his poor family, and an abusive ...

William G. Perry: Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years

Perry conducts research on college age students and sets forth their intellectual and ethical development through nine positions. Position One is designated as Basic Duality. At this stage, the student places knowledge into two categories: the “in-group” and the “outgroup” (Diessner, 2008). According to Perry, position one has the following attributes: Within the in group are things familiar: truths that concern obedience. The student develops knowledge through committing items to memory and obeying Authority. The out group consists of things unknown or alien to the student. This set of knowledge is considered illegitimate and wrong. The student sees no ...

History breeds nobility. The American President George Washington needs no introduction; who was a great political leader with a heart of gold that always thought about the people. He served as the first president of the United States and paved the way for the institution and his work procedure, legal policies and constituencies become the foundation of the American Presidency. However, despite his two-term service as the Chief Magistrate of a great nation, his early life was a mystery which was presented to the audience through the book "Ten Facts About Washington’s Presidency''. The story of his life ...

Book review: Families, Schools, and Communities: Building Partnerships for Educating Children, 5th Edition by Chandler H. Barbour, Nita H. Barbour and Patricia A. Scully

Introduction

Families, Schools, and Communities: Building Partnerships for Educating Children, 5th Edition offers more choices for teachers and students than the previous editions. The authors are all educators and their combined experience easily reaches 100 years. Professor Chandler Barbour has retired from an elementary school teaching career but he is still actively involved as a volunteer to his community’s projects with public schools, church boards, directing a fishing advocacy group and as a member on a hospital board. He ...

Robert Sapolsky, one of the famous professors of neurology and biology and at Stanford University wrote the book “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers,” to compare and contrast the stress responses in humans and animals. The book draws attention to experimental science to understand the concept of stress. Sapolsky’s research on animal behavior for several years in the forests of Africa forms the foundation of the book. The book gives an account of the impact of stress in humans and the strategies that enable to cope with the stress. The different chapters in the book explain the effect ...

Introduction

This influential book by writer and translator Kwan reckons his tumultuous coming-of-age in China during and after World War II. This direct and poetic work clarifies the contradictions of wartime as set through the eyes of a child. Kwan is alienated from his Swiss mother as a young boy and servants take care of him while his father remarries an Englishwoman. Thus, David is emotionally distant from his father who is a wealthy administrator for China's railroads, and a role model to those he interacts with. Kwan's story is as much about his father as it is about him. He explores interesting details ...

“Coming of Age in Mississippi” is a classic autobiography of Anne Moody that was first published in the year 1968. Readers get to know about Moody’s life of her childhood and till late twenties. The book presents the struggle faced by African-Americans in Mississippi, and how it was to be grown up in a very racial state. The autobiography of Moody is unique in a sense that it reflects direct voice of a poor, oppressed black women, who is struggled to change the society and tried to make it a better pace for African-Americans. Moody was grown up in a society where racism was ...

The Phantom of the Opera lives under a very famous opera house. There is a mere chorus girl called Christine Daae, who under his guidance becomes a prominent singer with a very beautiful voice. There is also the childhood sweetheart of the young girl; Vicount Raoul de Changy has come into the picture. Christine is haunted by her past and her and her picture seems bleak and uncertain while her present remain undecided. The big question remains: who will win her heart between the handsome childhood sweetheart and the masked angel of music. The Phantom of the opera is a story of murder, romance, ...

ABSTRACT

Anne Fausto-Sterling is a biologist who has written Sex/Gender for a non-scientist audience of students and faculty in the humanities and social sciences. This book addresses a wide variety of topics including infant and childhood development, genetics, gender identity, brain development and structure, sexual orientation, and the future of gender in an engaging style that neither talks down to the readers nor goes over their heads. She completely rejects and idea of eugenics, Social Darwinism or genetic or biological determinism, as well as the worn out Nature/Nurture debate in relation to human development. Instead she maintains that all living organisms are part ...

The book follows Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a reclusive mad scientist, who seeks to create new life by sewing together the limbs and remains of several other dead bodies and reanimate them. Victor's childhood was geared very closely toward the pursuit of science, while he befriended his adopted sister Elizabeth and studied science with his father. After attending university, he decides to finally reanimate a dead body with life, assembling a rough body consisting of mismatched parts of ugly organs and limbs, bringing it to life. However, Victor thinks his work ugly, and escapes the room where he reanimated him, leaving the monster ...

Book Review

Book Review 2: ‘Children of Dust’ by Ali Eteraz
Background Introduction
The book ‘Children of Dust’ by Ali Eteraz focuses on his narrative regarding his religion centered childhood. He grew up in a deeply religious Islamic family, and like most children, he follows in the same religion pathway as his parents. However, Abir Eteraz’s relationship with the religion identity is far way complex than his peers and age mates in his neighborhood in America. With time, the young boy becomes fanatical and obsessed with Islamic faith with the limited comprehension of a child. Largely, his parents are a ...

My work is devoted to the book “Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town” by Jon Krakauer. It is devoted to the series of sexual rapes which happened at the University of Montana, in the town of Missoula. Missoula is an ordinary college town, which has a state university with its own football team, the Grizzlies. Between years 2008 and 2012 there were over 300 sexual assaults reported to the local police station. Most of these cases were settled by the university or local authority. The author of the book examines several cases more deeply and ...

Literature:

Latin Class
The Aeneid (from Latin Aenēis) is an epic work, written in Latin, the author of which is Virgil. This work comes from time, between 29th and 19th year B.C. This work dedicated to the story of Aeneas, a legendary Trojan hero who moved to Italy with the remains of his nation; hero, who established the Lavinia, while his son established Alba Longa city.
Virgil wrote this poem in dactylic hexameter and it consists of twelve books, six of which are mimic to Odysseys and the other six to Iliad. The chronology of Aeneid is intentionally violated; ...

Book Report

Thomas R.M believes that studying and understanding the growth and development of a child is helpful to train the young on how to live well. Children differ in emotional growth, physical, social and cognitive patterns. Children differ even if they are identical twins. Think of a child; you will find out that their response to the play, affection, people, and objects be it living or non-living in their environment is very different. In this book, Thomas R.M helps us to understand children better by discussing the principles of child development, the brain growth, and development of a child. He ...

Relating Literature to Experience: Literary Masterpieces that Speak.

Literature has existed in our lives since the invention of formal standardized writing. Writers have used literature to express their thoughts and opinions on various subjects relating to human life. Fundamentally, literature has always been about relating to the human life and experiences. Literature employs elements of writing such a plot, point of view and dialogue to express the ideas of the author. In most cases, authors approach a subject by writing about experiences and using humor to pass the point across rather than approaching the subject head on. Literature has been used over time to record experiences and ...

Journalism should never be underestimated. It is a flow of opinions through which one can gain his or her most important knowledge. Moreover, it gives not only positive knowledge, but also an opportunity to think critically, to analyze and to compare the material discussed in one or another article. So, when I am asked if a person was a potential model in the sphere of journalism, or not a model at all, I am not sure if we can come to a comprehensive and an explicit answer. Anyway, I am sure that Murray Kempton cannot be omitted while discussing ...

The four articles summarized and discussed in this annotated bibliography were selected because they deal with some of the civilizations of the first Americans, the Aztecs in particular. There always seems to be a lot of information and research into Western and pre-Western archaeology and anthropology, such as studies about Celtic, Roman, and Egyptian culture and mythology, but less about pre-Columbian America. All four of these articles were selected from peer-reviewed journals. Journals were selected instead of a book because it seemed like the best way to get a general idea about some very diverse topics regarding the Aztecs. Topics for three ...

Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life. By Author, Anderson, Jon L.
Anderson Jon evokes Che Guevara’s intricate character in describing his role and myth, in one of the darkest periods of the cold war. Notably, the book completes the heroic saga of an outstanding life. Anderson begins by breaking the account of the entire event, particularly after Che’s body was secretly hidden after his assassination in Bolivia in 1967. He gives an account of how Che’s body was discovered, and brought back to Cuba after thirty years of murder. He further analyzes how Che’s body ...

Women are mostly neglected in the society. The position of women remains unrecognized in most areas of the world. In early days, women were seen as wives whose obligations were to look after kids, cook and do cleaning and laundry The Landscape for a Good Woman tells the story of Carolyn’s childhood and her mother's refusal to mother. This implies how Edna, Carolyn’s mother ran away from the responsibilities of taking care of her two children as she even frankly tells them that were it, not for them; she would be somewhere else.
Carolyn greatly challenges theory ...

Chapter 1

Summary of Chapter 1
“Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” written by Frederick Douglass is one of the famous slave narratives of the North. Douglass, born as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey in Maryland begins his slave narrative with his birth in Tuckahoe, Maryland. He says that he does not know who his father was and that he saw his mother only four to five times in his life. Douglass also expresses his doubt that his master was his father. Separation from parents and lack of information about paternity and age were common among the slaves. The masters ...

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[Submission Date]

The American children have a drastic difference in the quality of their lives and futures due to class differences. Annette Lareau has explored this fact in Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life by utilizing her comprehensive observations. She has presented a clear picture of the American children belonging to poor, working-class, and middle class families. She has highlighted the contrast between various families. She points towards the frantic families that manage the chaotic schedules of their children's leisure activities. She also draws attention to families that have lots of time but minute financial security.
In ...

Reflections on the reading of the book ‘‘A Child called ‘IT’ – Themes, Main points, analysis of characters, impact on my professional and personal evolution as an individual
[The author’s name]

Abstract

This paper will present you with the personal reflections caused by the reading of the book ‘A Child called ΄΄It΄΄’. Written by David Pelzer and published on September 1, 1995, this book depicts, in an extremely detailed description, the writer’s childhood of a severe abuse by his mother. David Pelzer suffered abuse by his mother and total apathy by his father, from the age of four till ...

- How were Custer’s (Autie) and Crazy Horse’s (Curly) childhood lessons and educations different? How did these differences reflect their culture? Be specific.
Both Curly and Autie had been taught different childhood lessons and both had received different educations. Talking about Curly, he grew up in the society with only one culture dominating. Nature and Sioux were his main teachers. In contrast to that, Autie grew up being surrounded by multicultural society. Secondly, Curly’s father never had any traditional occupation of hunter or a warrior. He was a healer, therefore Curly was always surrounded by his father’ ...

Introduction

In his famous autobiographical book the Hunger of Memory: the Education of Richard Rodriguez, Richard Rodriguez, a renowned public speaker and author expertly illustrates his personal experiences of emotional disconnect and societal alienation. He explores how this has had a tremendous influence on his life from his childhood as a first generation Mexican-American boy.
The main thesis or theme of the book form the author’s point of view is that the society together with the education system in general requires a radical revision for it to be able to produce people who do not have alienation from life like the he ...

Introduction

“A Child called It: One Child's Courage to Survive” is first amongst the series of autobiographical writings by American author, humanitarian activist and entrepreneur David (Dave) Pelzer. Dave was born in 1960 in the Pelzer family, acquiring the place of third out of a total of five boys. His father Stephen Joseph Pelzer was a fireman at San Francisco, California. “A Child called It” was published in the year 1995, when Dave was as young as 33. The book describes the horrible times of his childhood age from 4-12 with his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother Catherine Pelzer, and tells about Dave’ ...

My Beloved World is the recently published book by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Coming from an impoverished Puerto Rican family living in the Bronx, and facing seemingly insurmountable odds like juvenile diabetes and a violent neighborhood, Justice Sotomayor rose to become the third female justice and the first Latino woman to ever occupy such a position in the United States Supreme Court. Early on in the book Sotmayor makes it clear that her book is a memoir and not an objective biography. She points out that memory is selective in its remembrances of past events which might be perceived differently by ...

Reflection of My Day

The America of LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman does not seem the same as the America we know today. Their America seems to be that of despair and poverty. The America that is described in Jones’s and Newman’s Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago is an America that not many of us are familiar with. We would have probably never known about the significance of the struggles of these two young boys if they had not been courageous enough to write about their in the Wells Housing Project in ghetto of Chicago. ...

LIFE AND WORK OF ABIGAIL ADAMS BASED ON TWO BIOGRAPHY BOOKS: "ABIGAIL ADAMS - WITNESS TO REVOLUTION" AND "MY DEAREST FRIEND".

Abigail Adams was one of the most intriguing historical figures in American history - the wife of John Adams, the second President of the United States, she was witness to the founding of the country itself, as well as the beginnings of its government. Despite being a woman in a new country in the 18th century, she held a remarkable amount of political power, as well as an incredible influence on her husband, John Adams. She is most well known for her correspondence with him during the Continental Congress - their debates on politics and government remain a fantastic eyewitness account of the ...

I. Summary
This is a story about Richard Kuklinski, a psychopath who killed people for a living without remorse or compunction. And as he had told the book author, he liked what he did.
A hit man for the Mafia, he did jobs for the crime syndicate for two decades --murdering maybe more than a hundred people in New York and other states and in a career that spanned more than two decades.
But more than a hit man, Kuklinski, who was Polish, also killed people sometimes out of rage as he had a violent temper. He would kill people simply for disrespecting ...

Jonathan Safran Foer has entertained enormous significant approval and international awareness for his writing approach in novels for example Everything Is Illuminated: a Novel. The most recent book, however, is a factual and on edge. Eating Animals is a comprehensive Foer’s individual description of disagreements with the principles of eating animals subsequent to the delivery of his son. The book is sectioned into eight chapters, each one containing a title that is not completely obvious but more reminiscent and figurative. For “All or Nothing or Something Else” for the second chapter plunging into the predicament of the quantity and type of animal ...

Introduction

Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s book Colored People is an extra ordinary book that captures moments in history for the African American community and all the communities which existed during the transition period in America in the second half of the twentieth century. The author portrays this unique period in the American cultural life history by focusing on one small town in West Virginia as a microcosm for what was happening in the fifties and sixties across the American racial landscape.
Piedmont was Gates home as a child and the color lines between the communities living there were almost deteriorating. ...