Why do some children succeed while others fail? In HOW CHILDREN SUCCEED, Paul Tough shows us that it’s not how much information we can stuff into their brains in the first few years, and it’s not how highly they score on tests, from preschool admissions to SATs. Tough connects the dots between groundbreaking research in neuroscience, economics, and psychology to show that the qualities that matter most for success have less to do with IQ and more to do with character: skills like grit, curiosity, conscientiousness, and optimism. 

Journalist Paul Tough has written acclaimed articles about character and childhood in the New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker, and he chronicled the way one man is changing the lives of poor children in his first book Whatever it Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America.