by James E. Johnson,

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In their new book, Sue Rogers and Julie Evans focus on early education in the United Kingdom (UK) for the "muddle in the middle," that is, they look at teaching and child-play theory in the reception class, which is what the British call the first class of primary school. (Rogers is a senior lecturer in education at the University of London, and Evans is a senior lecturer in sociology at the University College Plymouth St. Mark & St. John.) The book is based on their interesting research of kids' "being four" in contrast to "becoming five." They generate such research through observations and innovative interviews of teachers and young children to acquire perspectives on social pretense or role playing both indoors and outdoors at school. This book and its modest ethnographic research are timely and significant for readers in the United States, where kids go through preschool nowadays at three and four years of age and where academic models that denigrate play flourish under learning standards, accountability, and the rubric of "No Child Left Behind."