Why read The Design of Childhood?

Book cover of The Design of Childhood: How the Material World Shapes Independent Kids

Book description

"Nothing short of spectacular . . . A secret guidebook to a landscape in which we all dwell, but so often fail to see." --Tom Vanderbilt, bestselling author of Traffic

From building blocks to city blocks, an eye-opening exploration of how children's playthings and physical surroundings affect their development.

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Design of Childhood as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Daniel P. Aldrich

Author

We live in suburbs, high-density downtown cities, exurbs, rural areas – but most of us don’t really think about the way that things around us have been designed.

Especially for those of us with children, whole schools of thought have been created, designed a variety of chairs, tools, blocks, and play spaces, and then been replaced by other ways of doing the same materials. This book tackles jungle gyms, school classrooms, EPCOT, and a variety of other places that are all too familiar to us, but in new and creative ways.

It is easy to read with lots of…

From Daniel's 3 favorite reads in 2023.