I don’t know Michael Thomas, Professor at Nagoya University of Commerce & Business in Japan, but I intend to. I want to thank him for the favorable and thoughtful review of Vygotsky at Work and Play that he wrote for the British Journal of Educational Technology.  He says so well what I was trying to do in writing the book! The review begins…

The influence of Lev Vygotsky’s thought, particularly in relation to social constructivism and socio- cultural theory, has become one of the most prominent methodologies associated with a reorientation of learning in the digital age. This book examines the development and impact of Vygotsky’s thought using an engaging first person narrative and personal account, and examines how it has been applied to a range of learning situations both inside and outside of traditional educational contexts. Although this is not a conventional academic introduction to Vygotsky’s thought then, key concepts such as the zone of proximal development (and the author’s idea of the zone of emotional development) are introduced, and Holzman skillfully interweaves theory and practice throughout the book’s six chapters.

You can read the complete review at the Reviews page

I’m so pleased and honored that my book Vygotsky at Work and Play was nominated for the Eleanor Maccoby Book Award in Developmental Psychology, given by Divison 7 (Developmental Psychology) of the American Psychological Association annually. I just posted the nomination on the Reviews page under Vygotsky at Work and Play. Check it out! And heartfelt thanks to the international group of nominators!

A review of the book appeared in the latest issue of the Journal of Evaluation. It was lovely and favorable. The thing that struck me, though, and what I wanted to share, is that the reviewer (Krystin Martens)I was unusually honest in sharing with readers the process she went through in reading the book for review. Near the end of the review, she says: “Sabo is not attempting to show how to use youth participation as a component within a traditional evaluation to round out the evidence of the merit of a program, she is instead using evaluation as a tool to promote youth participation. It came to me that the title of the book is very telling; evaluation is not the first word, it follows behind youth and participation, and that is precisely where it belongs for her approach—third—and followed by ‘Strategies for Engaging Young People.’ I believe that Sabo introduced this point clearly, it is just that it took me a while to switch gears from a traditional evaluation standpoint (e.g., what is the merit,worth,and/or significance of the evaluand?) to exploring creative ways that youth can be engaged to participate in and drive their own growth and change through the evaluation process.”

Good reviews are hard to write. Too often, they turn out to be about a book the author wishes the author wrote rather than the one s/he actually did write. Not this time though.