“The Gardener and the Carpenter” by Alison Gopnik

Subtitled “What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children.” Drawing on the study of human evolution and her own cutting-edge scientific research into how children learn, developmental psychologist and philosopher Alison Gopnik shows that although caring for children is profoundly important, it is not a matter of shaping them to turn out a particular way. Children are designed to be messy and unpredictable, playful and imaginative—and to be very different both from their parents and from each other.