The Story of Childhood

Book excerpt: Childhood. We've all known it, but do we remember what it was like? Can we as adults relate to children or do we misunderstand them? Do we hanker after an unrealistic ideal of innocence that probably never was? To what extent has childhood become an adult-imagined universe? There is so much social anxiety surrounding their behaviour, nutrition, sexuality, consumerism and educational achievement that children may well have become the victims of inappropriate adult perceptions. In today's ASBO-afflicted Britain, Libby Brooks suggests that there is much we don't understand about contemporary childhood. The Story of Childhood explores this idea as Libby Brooks talks to nine very different children between the ages of four and sixteen growing up in Britain today. The public schoolboy, the young offender, the teenage mum, the country lad, for example, talk amusingly, frankly, and sometimes shockingly about their own lives conveying a sense of immediate experience that is thought-provoking and illuminating. Enriched by insights from literature, sociology, history and psychology, this is a remarkable piece of writing. Anyone who cares about the welfare of children should read this important book.