The Orchid and the Dandelion: Why Some Children Struggle and How All Can Thrive

Pediatrician and child psychiatrist Boyce proposes a novel way of understanding children’s sensitivity to their environment—as a spectrum, from dandelion to orchid. Sturdy dandelions are less reactive to childhood stressors and more likely to thrive wherever they are, while orchid children—one in five, by Boyce’s estimate—display a heightened sensitivity that causes them to “founder” in poor environments but thrive in good ones. Drawing on 25 years of medical practice, along with the sad story of his orchid sister’s mental health struggles, Boyce weaves a fascinating story of discovery out of his experiments exploring “how children’s social and emotional experiences might affect their physical bodies,” and more generally, how health “imbalances are the interactive products of environments and genes operating together.” While the parenting advice is familiar and the prose too ornate in parts, the book shines when Boyce explains the results of his and others’ experiments in rich, elegant detail. His impassioned treatise makes a strong case, not just for Boyce’s view of child psychology, but for the policy reforms—family leave, state-supported childcare, early childhood development programs, and measures against income inequality—that would allow all children to flower into their full potential, and lead “satisfying and meaningful adult lives.” (Feb.)