This title provides a wide-ranging survey of topics related to educational practice, neuroscience and cognition, psychology, and mental health topics. It consists of 104 signed entries written by highly qualified scholars in their respective fields. Each entry ranges in length from a page or less to five or more pages depending upon the topic. Entries include suggestions for further reading and cross-references to other relevant entries to provide readers with a more thorough treatment of the topic. It also includes an extensive and useful bibliography for locating more information. This book would be useful in academic and community college collections, particularly at institutions supporting education, health care, and psychology programs.

While I generally found From the Brain to the Classroom to be a worthwhile and useful resource, I recommend approaching its purchase with caution. In preparing this review, I encountered The Praeger Handbook of Learning and the Brain (Praeger, 2006), also edited by Feinstein, in my own reference collection and began to draw comparisons between the two works. I found that this book is nearly identical to From the Brain to the Classroom. From the Brain to the Classroom included only six new entries, and all others are reprinted verbatim from The Praeger Handbook of Learning and the Brain. There also exists only minimal difference between the glossary terms included in the two books. The new entries include those concerned with technology, television, video games, brain anatomy, mirror neurons, and an entry on reading and miscue analysis. In the newer book, the “Further Reading” sections following each entry generally include more items, which I consider a benefit; however, on the whole, I cannot recommend this book for purchase by libraries who already own The Praeger Handbook of Learning and the Brain. Considering the funding limitations that concern most libraries today, the subtle differences between these two resources and the minimal amount of new content will not generally warrant the expenditure required to acquire both items. I do, however, recommend From the Brain to the Classroom for libraries who do not already own the Praeger set.