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This is indeed a good introduction to the actual life and particular problems and reactions during the years immediately preceding puberty. The author offers the results of the literature, of questionnaire returns and of autobiographies and biographies. He discusses the personal relations (the parents, the brothers and sisters, especially the sisters, and the friendships); the play, escapades, gang life, the class and social situation, and the question of secrecy and self-consciousness; the relations to values (the mental horizon, literature, religion, morality, the ranking of values, selection of career and sexuality). The book is not a mere abstract discussion, but is full of concrete material as seen by the understanding educator and student of young life. The conscientious correlation and bringing together of material also from the pertinent German literature make the book not only of descriptive but of genuinely critical value and an interesting supplement to the study of life-periods