After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s, with rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rising sharply. The author lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time, and then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults....

Pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton offers parents a comprehensive overview of the emotional and behavioral development of children from birth to three years old, covering development milestones, common early childhood problems, and the role parents, siblings, grandparents, child care centers, friends, and medical professionals play in a child's development.