The best science writing helps us to look at ourselves and our world in new ways, and does this by combining compelling storytelling with scientific depth and detail. This book not only has all of these qualities, but also has something to offer every reader - whether you are a teenager, parent of a teenager, or just interested in understanding your former teenage self.

Completely captivating ... Blakemore explains the science behind teenage behaviour in a lucid and engaging way, deconstructs the myths that surround it, offers new insight into how we should treat teenagers, and reflects on how our new knowledge might usefully influence policy decisions. …This is truly a book that everyone should read.

Absolutely fascinating

An engaging and interesting book, written comprehensibly for a non-specialist audience. You will understand your children and your former selves better for reading it and you will bust a few myths as you go.

There are few people more qualified to explain [adolescence] than the author of this compelling book. What I enjoyed most about this book was the readability and personal style of the narrative. Blakemore manages to present a highly accessible account of the science, without ever compromising on detail or depth…there is almost a sense that the reader is in the lab, listening in on the discussions and taking part in the decisions….This book has something to offer everyone … Blakemore provides a unique and very up-to-date insight into the changes that occur during this intriguing period.

Refreshingly and reassuringly light and lucid in both tone and approach ...an enjoyable, accessible, and insightful book by an author at the top of her field.

A very readable book bringing together the up-to-date research about how the adolescent brain develops. This matters to both adolescents and parents but also should be read by everyone who looks after adolescents, be they teachers, doctors or psychologists.

Inventing Ourselves is a gripping celebration of the teenage brain. Essential reading for parents, teachers and teens.
Sane, wise, myth busting, this book is a triumph and should be read by every parent and teacher but they should be warned. They’ll have to fight their teenagers to get this gripping book out of their hands.

The teenage brain is different, but in what way? This beautifully written book tells just how it influences and is influenced by the new challenging demands of a transformational phase of life. There is no sensationalism here. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore is a pioneer in the field and provides a meticulous account of what we know.

Inventing Ourselves is an accessible introduction both
to neuroscience and experimental psychology, covering
basic research techniques while providing an overview of
recent studies of adolescence that will be of interest even
to someone familiar with these fields. This balance is in
large part due to the author’s ability to explain nuanced
experiments with an infectious enthusiasm that engages
the reader’s curiosity. Blakemore approaches the topic with
a sympathy and respect for the adolescents she works with
that is genuinely admirable. For anyone looking back on
their teenage years, trying to raise a teenager, or working
with adolescents, this book can help foster understanding
about why adolescents act the way they do and how we
become our adult selves.

Blakemore's mission is to convince us to celebrate the adolescent brain, not problematise it. The communication of the cutting-edge evidence behind her argument represents a unique combination of scientific rigor and excitement, in a superbly engaging account of the development and malleability of the human brain. This is essential reading for educationalists – and indeed for all those interested in how young people's brains develop, and the complex interplay between the environment and the human body.

In an engaging work of scientific analysis combined with personal anecdote, Professor Blakemore has made an extremely important contribution to the way in which society (and criminal justice in particular) should approach adolescent crime, in particular, gang or group related. The book is thought provoking and should be essential reading for all those considering this difficult issue.

A brainy guide to the science behind teenagers' behaviour ... Inventing Ourselves is a timely book. Blakemore points out that we sometimes put too much trust in scientific studies, which, after all, produce findings not facts, and suggests that whatever we read about neuroscience “should be swallowed with a substantial swig of scepticism”. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore nails some neuro-myths and calls out the snake-oil salesmen, but warns against throwing the neuroscience baby out with the “brain baloney” bathwater.

Beautifully written with clarity, expertise and honesty about the most important subject for all of us. I couldn’t put it down.

This is a fascinating book, which captures the complexity of adolescence but at the same time provides a clear, accessible account of our current understanding of the ‘teenage brain’. The underlying argument that adolescence is a period of development that should be celebrated is well made and challenges us all to rethink the way in which we relate to the adolescents with whom we come into contact at work, home or elsewhere. Given the complex changes that are going on in the ‘teenage brain’ it is no wonder we see such a variety of behaviours. As the author reminds us, the vast majority of adolescents do not go to extremes but become adults who support their families and, in their own way, contribute to society.
In this book Sarah-Jayne Blakemore has, without doubt, made neuroscience of the ‘teenage brain’ accessible to a wide audience. More importantly, through her personalisation of the material, she has presented it in a way that is engaging and relevant. There is much still to learn about how the brain works but for now this book is not only an excellent introduction for someone new to this field but it also challenges us all to think again about the importance of the ‘teenage years’ and how we might work with (rather than against) the adolescents with whom we come into contact every day.

There are few scientists that can write about complex issues with such lucidity and force. Blakemore takes on the topic of adolescence and succeeds and sets a new bar for a no nonsense discussion about the crucial importance of brain development. Clearly, teenagers are assembling their minds right in front of our very eyes and Blakemore shows us how to understand the wonder and joy of it all.

A brilliant scientist reveals herself to be a writer of considerable talent. With precision, honesty and humour, Sarah Jayne-Blakemore shows how the brooding monsters in your living room are not children gone wrong: they are delicate machines in transition.

An irresistible insight into the teenage years. This book is utterly brilliant, Rarely have I read a book on education with such enjoyment.

We have learned a great deal about adolescent brain development in recent years, and this book is an up-to-date, authoritative, and accessible account of research that helps us understand, among other things, why teenagers sometimes take big risks, and why they are vulnerable to mental illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia.

I currently live with not one but two adolescent brains and, thanks to the thoughtful, lucid and illuminating scientific insights of Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, now at least I understand why they are so infuriating - and am even encouraged to try to do more to support my kids during this crucial, dramatic and maddening period of brain growth.

An engrossing account of the adolescent brain, how it transforms, and how it ultimately shapes the adults we become.

Finally, a book about the adolescent brain written by someone who actually does the science! In this highly readable, ground-breaking book Blakemore takes us not only into the minds of teenagers, but into the minds of the people who study them. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in how adolescents think, and for everyone concerned about how to apply this knowledge to policy and practice.

[In adolescence] our behaviours, desires and moods, all of which feed into our happiness, become very different... This is a thorough, informative read across the whole subject.

A fine synthesis of psychology with the latest brain research. Books of the Year.

The Collected Schizophrenias is illumination and important--not only because it educates and challenges--but because it forces us to consider how much we still have to work to undo historical and systematic damage, to challenge our own broken, misguided partiality towards what it means to be healthy and sane

[The Collected Schizophrenias] organizes the confusion, terror and complexity of [Wang's] experience into an imperfectly cohesive, profoundly illuminating whole.

Penetrating and revelatory.

This mesmerizing collection of essays has achieved the rarest of rarities--a meaningful and expansive language for a subject that has been long bound by both deep revulsion and intense fascination

A brilliant guide to the complexities of thinking about illness, and mental illness, in particular. It will bring hope to others searching to understand their own diagnoses

A masterful braiding of the achingly personal and the incisively researched. . . . This book is a vital, illuminating window onto the world we all already live in, but find all too easy to ignore

You won't find any pity-baiting, sensationalism, or false positivity here; Wang is so candidly aware that I'd trust her over my own diary

Esmé Weijun Wang offers us an all-access pass to her beautiful, unquiet mind. . . Rarely has a book about living with mental illness felt so immediate, raw, and powerful

The Collected Schizophrenias is at once generous and brilliantly nuanced, rigorous and bold. It had me rethinking what it is to be well or ill.

Esmé Weijun Wang sends out revelatory dispatches from an under-mapped land, shot like arrows in all directions from a taut bow of a mind. . . . Her work changes the way we think about illness - which is to say that it changes us