This book reviews the contemporary state of knowledge on developmental transitions between 5 and 7 years. Contributions are: (1) "Interpreting Developmental Transitions" (Arnold Sameroff; Marshall Haith); (2) "The Child's Entry into the 'Age of Reason'" (Sheldon White); (3) "Is There a Neural Basis for Cognitive Transitions in School-Age Children?" (Jeri Janowsky; Ruth Carper); (4) "Unidimensional Thinking, Multidimensional Thinking, and Characteristic Tendencies of Thought" (Robert Siegler); (5) "A Recursive Transformation of Central Cognitive Mechanisms: The Shift from Partial to Whole Representations" (Pierre Mounoud); (6) "Shifting to an Interpretive Theory of Mind: 5- to 7-Year-Olds' Changing Conceptions of Mental Life" (Michael Chandler; Chris LaLonde); (7) "Memory Development from 4 to 7 Years" (Katherine Nelson); (8) "Schooling and the 5 to 7 Shift: A Natural Experiment" (Frederick Morrison; And Others); (9) "The 5 to 7 Shift in Reading and Phoneme Awareness for Children with Dyslexia" (Richard Olson; And Others); (10) "Developmental Changes in Self-Understanding across the 5 to 7 Shift" (Susan Harter); (11) "Fearfulness: Developmental Consistency" (Joan Stevenson-Hinde; Anne Shouldice); (12) "Sibling Relationships and Perceived Self-Competence: Patterns of Stability between Childhood and Early Adolescence" (Judy Dunn); (13) "Developmental Transitions in Children's Participation in Sociocultural Activities" (Barbara Rogoff); (14) "The 5 to 7 Transition as an Ecocultural Project" (Thomas Weisner); (15) "The Impact of the Family on Children's Early School Social Adjustment" (Joan Barth; Ross Parke); (16) "Shifting Ecologies during the 5 to 7 Year Period: Predicting Children's Adjustment during the Transition to Grade School" (Gary Ladd); (17) "Combining Endogenous and Exogenous Factors in the Shift Years: The Transition to School" (Sharon Kagan; Peter Neville); (18) "Performance in Context: Assessing Children's Achievement at the Outset of School" (Samuel Meisels); and (19) "The 5 to 7 Year Shift: Retrospect and Prospect" (Marshall Haith; Arnold Sameroff). (KDFB)