The book Endangered Minds: Why Children Don’t Think and What We Can Do About It by Jane Healy was recommended to me as a discussion of why even educational TV can have negative effects on children. I was going to go out and buy it, but I noticed on the amazon.com review that the book also endorses whole-language learning. Sounds like sight-reading to me. Has anyone read this book who could tell me if it’s worth the read? Or can anyone recommend another book on the subject of TV and its effect on kids? Michelle in Houston

I can recommend Endangered Minds (and Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children’s Minds — and What We Can Do About It by the same author), although I don’t know anything about her endorsing whole language. Another good book is The Plug-In Drug by Marie Winn.