Children solve problems effortlessly. Their ideas may be often impractical, but they produce them with a fluency, a zest, an impressible imagination which ought to be the envy of many an adult. Nevertheless it is primarily as a fascinating insight into the processes of the mind that Edward de Bono offers this collection of children’s thinking. A group of children were set nine tasks. These included the invention of a sleep-machine and a machine to weigh elephants; the devising of systems for building a house quickly and a rocket; the finding of methods to improve the human body and to help police with bad men. Each task was carefully chosen to involve the children in coping with problems of a distinct character, and Edward de Bono’s introductions and commentaries point up many insights into childhood imagination and world-view.