If you're a parent, you may have already discovered the dearth of literature on a very important period in your child's life: ages two to five, known as the preschool years. The first book of its kind, The Preschool Years brings together in a single, superbly organized volume the advice of parents, and the latest thinking of experts, on one hundred issues that arise during this crucial time.

Ellen Galinsky and Judy David have collected an impressive wealth of knowledge from such experts as T. Berry Brazelton, Benjamin Spock, and Bruno Bettleheim, as well as insights from parents...

Almost all books for parents focus on the way children develop. Ellen Galinsky, instead, writes about how parents develop. Drawing on the work in adult development of Erik Erikson and Daniel Levinson, she describes six distinct stages in the life of a parent: the image-making that occurs during pregnancy; the nurturing role that swallows parents up from birth through the first couple of years; the authority parents must develop as small children show independence; the interpretive stage when parents explain the world and their values to school-age children; the interdependent stage when...