In this book Silin maps the common ground between early childhood and the period sociologists
call young-old age. Emphasizing the continuities that bind children and adults rather than the
differences that traditional developmental psychology claims separate us he focuses on the
themes we all manage across a lifetime. Building on memoir and narrative Silin argues that
when we recognize how the concerns of childhood continue to thread their way through our
experience we look anew at the shape of our lives. This book highlights the powerful
generative acts through which people of all ages find new meanings and relationships to
compensate for the individual and social losses that mark our lives.
