I recently read this book and think that it was pretty good. I think the author has a good understanding of the mind of a child because his insights rang true with what I remember of being a child as well as with the behaviour I see in my own daughter. I think what it boils down to is that children need lots of attention and love, and that you convey that through eye contact, physical contact and spending quality one on one time listening to your child. You can't really go wrong with that, I think. The best part for me was where he said that you shouldn't use "behaviour modification" all the time. That means giving rewards for good behaviour and consequences for bad behaviour all the time. I remember as a child crying and whining for attention and a hug, which must have been very annoying for my parents. My father would try to ignore this behaviour and then speak angrily at me (that made me cry louder) and then yell at me (screaming now) followed by gentle kicking (ear piercing screams from me followed by anger that lasted several days). The book says to give hugs and attention for this annoying behaviour. I do this with my daughter, which makes her pipe down. My father sees this and says that I shouldn't be rewarding her for her bad behaviour. I ignore this advice. The one questionable part of this book is all the religious and spiritual stuff in it. I am not religious at all, but if you just skip over that, the rest is good.