An educational tool presented without a rigorous argument for its effectiveness and that may feel dutiful to children.
Litvin introduces a game—including a workbook of exercises—designed to promote mental acuity in children.
According to author Litvin (Introduction to Brain Stimulation by Psychoconduction, 2011, etc.), a psychologist, parts of the human brain are “sleeping” or “inactive.” As a result, the brain as a whole underperforms, falling short of its potential efficiency. Litvin devised a game—a “new approach to non-invasive brain stimulation” intended to awaken those slumbering sectors of the brain—that emphasizes an integration of different kinds of stimuli into one continuous learning sequence, including “visual, audio, tactile, kinesthetic and olfactory types.” Litvin argues that the recruitment of all the senses (rather than only one) into action should improve “attention, concentration and the memory of the entire brain.” The exercises unfold in great detail, including visual illustrations. In general, each exercise presents a visual display of boxes that either contain a symbol or are empty. Each visual display corresponds to a number and a letter and has an “audio representation,” which is a series of knocks. The kinesthetic element, which corresponds to the numbers and letters, is expressed through the clamping and unclamping of each hand. A participating youngster—Litvin claims the game is appropriate for children as young as 5 years old—translates a code from one perceptual sense to another. The book is almost entirely a workbook of exercises—there is one page of explanation, which provides no scientific analysis of the functioning of the brain or any empirical evidence that this learning tool is superior to any other except the author’s anecdotal experience. For example, it’s not obvious the exercises are neurologically more productive than reading a book with a child. But they are lucidly explained and easy to follow. However, many parents will be skeptical that this particular brand of game, especially for kids used to all the options on the internet, is “fun.” The exercises feel like exactly that: drills conceived to foster greater competence, not merriment.
An educational tool presented without a rigorous argument for its effectiveness and that may feel dutiful to children.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4669-0045-5
Page Count: 94
Publisher: Trafford
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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