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P L AYof opportunities for self-regulation,
healthy human attachments, and positive
educational experiences.
The authors provide a clearly accessible description of the parts of the brain andits functions. Sample materials and activities embody the sense of adults enjoying
and appreciating their interactions withyoung children. It is important to consider how play becomes integrated withwholesome brain development. In fact,
the dynamics of play mirror the dynamic
nature of brain development. Young children explore physical and human interactions through contrasting patterns ofconnections, and their brains function
with synaptic connections across neurons. A dynamic view of early curriculum
is an active, play-based curriculum. Movements and contrasts support perception
and connections between objects, events,and self and others. Meanings emerge
through such contrasting patterns andconnections. At a time when families andeducators have concerns about academicachievements, it is particularly relevant tonurture children’s brains with their active,imaginative, and playful pastimes.
This readable, slim book is a usefulsupplementary text for early childhoodclasses as well as a helpful resource forcaregivers and teachers. Parents of young
children could appreciate the many activity ideas, adaptations, and children’s literature references. The book is devoid of
either cuteness or lock-step approaches.
It is a balanced accounting of the specificconnections between accessible details
about the brain, the brain’s development,and active, engaging experiences for youngchildren. It provides a refreshingly authentic respect for the unique competencies ofinfants, toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarten and primary age children.
—Doris Pronin Fromberg, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY

What the Children Told Us:
The Untold Story of the Famous“Doll Test” and the Black
Psychologists Who Changed
the WorldTim Spofford
Naperville IL: Sourcebooks, 2022.
Foreword, acknowledgments, appendix,
notes, select bibliography, about
the authors, index. 368 pp. $14.89.
hardcover. ISBN: 9781728248073
The book cover features a widely recognized photo taken by the renowned photographer, Gordon Parks, that is associatedwith the doll choice studies. Along withthe title, What the Children Told Us, thishelps author Tim Spofford lure the reader
and mounts their expectations to hearfrom the children who participated inKenneth and Mamie Clark’s iconic doll
choice studies. Who were they? What dothey remember? Do they regret their doll
preference? How did it impact their lives?
For those who snuggle in their chair witha book in hand, disappointment will soon
follow the prologue, but, hopefully, not for
the totality of the book.
In the field of social sciences andcommunications, generally speaking, Kenneth and Mamie Clark have been wedded
to the doll choice paradigm; in What theChildren Told Us, Spofford weds them toeach other. He offers a biographical sketch

Book Reviewsof their lives as college students who metand fell in love and as a professional couple
who negotiated the challenges of romance,family, parenthood, and general wellness.
The book is divided into three parts denoting significant transitions and accomplishments in their lives, and it essentially ends
with Mamie’s death in 1983. It is complemented by an epilogue that provides abroad-stroke summary of the more than
two-decades-long period in which Kenneth survived his wife, recounts theirimpact in advancing public conversations
and research on children’s racial identity
development, and acknowledges criticism
of their work levied by other respectablescholars, namely William Cross. Twelve
discussion questions invite the reader tointerrogate the life and career decisions ofKenneth and Mamie within the reality of
their—and their children’s—lived experiences of racial segregation. Finally, thereader gets to listen in on “A Conversation
with the Author” as Spofford shares a Q&A
about his process and reflections. Feminists
will appreciate Spofford’s illustration ofMamie as her husband’s intellectual equal
whose master’s thesis served as the impetus
for the doll choice studies.
This book explicates Kenneth andMamie’s intellectual development throughtheir collegial and mentor relationships
with individuals such as Francis Sumnerof Howard University, a student of G.
Stanley Hall and the first African American to receive a doctorate in psychology.
Sumner introduced them to Alfred Adler’s
theoretical tenet of the “inferiority complex.” And later, the Clarks influenced
Otto Klineberg of Columbia University, astudent of Franz Boas. Klineberg’s generation represented a group of scholars whosework “undermined the quackery behind
white supremacy” (p. 48), especially pertaining to race as a biological correlate ofintelligence and social inferiority.
Spofford provides insight into Kenneth and Mamie’s motivation for conducting, publishing, and general use of thedoll choice studies. He notes the irony of
their five-year deferment to publish theirresearch until after the findings had beensuccessfully tethered to a public relations
campaign to bolster Mamie’s 1946 establishment of the Northside Center for Child
Development in Harlem. The center was abyproduct of Mamie’s persistence in carving out space for her life’s work and her
discernment that “a blend of child psychiatry, remedial education, and social
work was the best way to help kids whosuffered the ills of a segregated society” (p.
207). Spofford highlights the impact of theRosenwald Fund, founded by Sears tycoon
Julius Rosenwald, as a granting agency that
not only supported the Northside Centerbut also provided funds to conduct theearlier doll choice studies and absorb someof Mamie’s graduate school expenses.
This book is more about how the doll
choice studies shaped the Clarks’ lives
and how it elevated their public profiles,
expanded their social and political circles
to foster alliance and discord with someof the most prominent Black leadersof their day, and served as a gateway toother career opportunities and institution
building that allowed them to project their“integrationist views on race, politics, andeducation” (p. 255).
Spofford notes, for example, that Kenneth and Mamie had “completed their[doll] experiment more than a decade
before the Brown decision” (p. 195). It229

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P L AYwas their public profile and steadfast integrationist stance—even as it would make
Kenneth initially oppose his son’s attempt
to establish a Black student association at
Columbia University—that made them anasset to the NAACP legal team. Leaning on
the legacy of their earlier doll studies, Kenneth conducted more with students from
specific counties of interest to the NAACP.
In addition, he shared a recently written
paper he had prepared for the Midcentury
White House Conference on Children andYouth, established by President Trumanto assess the mental health of the nation’schildren. Kenneth included reports written by Mamie and reflective of the realitiesof the children she served at the Northside Center. Other initiatives for which theClarks leveraged their name included theHarlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited(HARYOU) and the Metropolitan Applied
Research Center (MARC), both aimed atimproving the lives of Harlem children.
The biographical triumph of thisbook does nothing to move the needle ontheoretical tenets of child development
generally speaking or children’s play specifically. It, however, reminds us that children play and develop within a societal
context that informs their understandingof self and others. It was Kenneth andMamie Clark’s understanding of this thatserved as a compass for their life’s work as
integrationists. Still, this book is valuable
and needed. It contributes to the underresourced biographical canon about thework and lives of Kenneth and Mamie
Clark, two psychologists who changed ourview of children’s doll play. While the doll
choice studies are the most noted of theirlegacy, it was, as Spofford illustrates, “onlytheir opening act in a lifetime of activ-

ism in Harlem and on the national stage”(p.xiii). This book reminds us, as history
frequently teaches us, that our heroes
the Clarks “were ordinary people who’ddone extraordinary things and left a solid
legacy” (p. 290). Still, I conclude that thetitle was not completely dubious. What did
the children tell us? They said that racial
discrimination hurts—them and our society. We must continue to strive for a more
perfect union.
—Sabrina Lynette Thomas, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina

Peer Pedagogy on Digital
Platforms: Learning with
Minecraft Let’s Play Videos
Michael Dezuanni
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2020.
Series foreword, acknowledgments,references, and index. 224 pp. $34,
paperback, ISBN: 9780262539722
In Michael Dezuanni’s Peer Pedagogy on
Digital Platforms: Learning with Minecraft
Let’s Play Videos, we journey through an
exploration of how contemporary digital platforms, particularly Minecraft andYouTube, offer children and young people
fascinating new avenues for learning. The
book, in its 224 pages, thoroughly examines “Let’s Play” practices, the videos,and fans’ reactions through comments
and creative engagement with the Let’sPlay culture.
Dezuanni’s lucid and engaging writing style breaks down intricate concepts,
making them accessible to a wide range ofreaders. He introduces fresh perspectives