From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Wolf, a professor of child development at Tufts University, integrates psychology and archaeology, linguistics and education, history and neuroscience in a truly path-breaking look at the development of the reading brain-a complicated phenomenon that Wolf seeks to chronicle from both the early history of humanity and the early stages of an individual's development ("unlike its component parts such as vision and speech... reading has no direct genetic program passing it on to future generations"). Along the way, Wolf introduces concepts like "word poverty," the situation in which children, by age five, have heard 32 million less words than their counterparts (with chilling long-term effects), and makes time for amusing and affecting anecdotes, like the only child she knew to fake a reading disorder (attempting to get back into his beloved literacy training program). Though it could probably command a book of its own, the sizable third section of the book covers the complex topic of dyslexia, explaining clearly and expertly "what happens when the brain can't learn to read." One of those rare books that synthesizes cutting edge, interdisciplinary research with the inviting tone of a curious, erudite friend (think Malcolm Gladwell), Wolf's first book for a general audience is an eye-opening winner, and deserves a wide readership.

On its way to azuki.

Thanks Vegan! I got the package a few days ago but I was having problem w internet connection at home. Real glad to get the books fm you although I feel bad to have you send them so far away!
I think this is from a swap on BookObsessed.

I thought this book may be boring, but it's not! It's rather a fascinating and accessible read about how the brain process reading. Quite comprehensive, it compares the brain activities in learning different languages (good to know that my Chinese and English are working the brain hard...), and talks quite a bit about reading disabilities (which never was much of an issue for the most part of human history).

Spot this on a BCer's wishlist and saving it for her!! Glad to finally meet in person!!

Thanks so much for bringing this to the convention for me azuki! It was great to meet you!

Thanks again for bringing me this book, azuki. It took me ages to read because it's so full of information, I had to have a rest every few pages to let it all sink in!
Available for now, but I have a potential next reader in mind...

Passed to me by shnedwards - thank you! It looks fascinating. I'm going to take it on holiday to Cornwall later in the year and pass it to one of my friends there who I am sure will enjoy it.

I tried reading this but couldn't really get into it, I didn't really like the style for some reason. But it could have gone either way (esp as I have loved the other book shnedwards passed to me that she wasn't so keen on) and I appreciated the thought. Left in Cornwall to continue its journey.

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