This intelligent, sympathetic and unpretentious little book gives a straightforward account of mental development in childhood and adolescence from a psycho-analytic point of view. The author is perhaps at his best when describing the various characteristic reactions and preoccupations of childhood. On the other hand he has clearly misunderstood certain aspects of analytic theory and others again have been stated in a misleading way. The illustrative material quoted from writers such as Tolstoy, Gorki, D. H. Lawrence, etc., has been very interestingly chosen.