Title: Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs
Author: Ellen Galinsky
Publication Year: 2010
Website: mindinthemaking.org
Amazon Product Page (Affiliate Link)
Review: I fully agree that the seven life skills the author chooses as necessary are definitely extremely important. They are: 1) Focus and Self Control, 2) Perspective Taking, 3) Communicating, 4) Making Connections, 5) Critical Thinking, 6) Taking on Challenges, and 7) Self-Directed, Engaged Learning. However, this list is available on the back cover of the book and, while I feel the author thoughtfully and carefully chose these 7 skills, I don’t really feel that much insight is added by reading the entire book.
As is my complaint with many parenting books, the writing style of this book is just too dry to support the length of the text. She talks about numerous fascinating and useful studies and includes many anecdotal stories from her own life and other parents that are sometimes helpful and interesting. However, there is also a lot of redundancy and quotes from experts that I often didn’t find particularly valuable. I feel that a lot of effort and research went into this book, I just didn’t enjoy reading it very much and therefore, probably will not retain very much. (Personal Rating: 7/10)
Michelle has a PhD in Engineering from Stanford University and a Bachelor's Degree from the California Institute of Technology. 
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