Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Coles, Robert - John Leo (review date 17 March 1986)

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John Leo (review date 17 March 1986)

SOURCE: "Mysteries," in Time, Vol. 127, No. 11, March 17, 1986, p. 81.

[In the following review, Leo raises objections to Coles' methods of presenting his subjects and questions the importance of his findings.]

If the world offered Oscars for interviewing children, Anna Freud would win for lifetime achievement, Art Link-letter would walk off with the trophy for most tots questioned, and Harvard Psychiatrist Robert Coles would be handsdown, standing-ovation winner of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. He might also win the Dino De Laurentiis plaque for epic production. To date, Coles has spent 28 years toting notebook, crayons and tape recorder around the world, attempting to glean moral and political insights from children, an effort that now runs to seven books and more than a million words.

What to make of this extraordinary labor? Coles is an erudite, fiercely moral man. But he is not a...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Melvin J. Friedman (review date Fall 1982)
   2. Neil Postman (review date 19 January 1986)
   3. Katherine Paterson (review date 2 February 1986)
   4. Jonathan Kellerman (review date 9 February 1986)
   5. New Yorker (review date 10 February 1986)
   6. John Leo (review date 17 March 1986)
   7. Kenneth L. Woodward (review date 6 September 1987)
   8. Jeff Dietrich (review date 13 September 1987)
   9. Fitzhugh Mullan (review date 8 May 1988)
   10. Helen Bevington (review date 26 February 1989)
   11. Francis X. Rocca (review date March 1989)
   12. Iain Bamforth (review date 7-13 July 1989)
   13. Sanford Pinsker (essay date Summer 1989)
   14. Herbert Mitgang (review date 21 November 1990)
   15. Laura Sessions Stepp (review date 23 December 1990)
   16. The New Yorker (review date 7 January 1991)
   17. Virginia C. Hoch (review date 26 August-2 September 1992)
   18. A. J. S. (review date 1993)
   19. Michelle Huneven (essay date 3 October 1993)
   20. Robert A. Sirico (review date 15 November 1993)
   21. Gail Russell Chaddock (review date 9 December 1993)
   22. Ed Walraven (essay date 1994)
   23. Paulina F. Kernberg (review date October 1994)
   24. Richard Bernstein (review date 27 January 1997)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright