Review of Susan Boynton and Roe-Min Kok, eds. 2006. Musical Childhoods and the Cultures of Youth. Music/Culture. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press

Studies of music and childhood have a long, if irregular, history, but childhood nonetheless remains a marginal topic in musicology. In the last decade, a number of books, articles and dissertations have begun to argue that music and aesthetics are key elements in children’s social practices, in the articulation of childhood identity , and in adult frameworks for understanding their own and others’ childhoods, and that children and childhood deserve prominent attention from musicologists. In this environment, Musical Childhoods and the Cultures of Youth represents an important achievement, appearing at an opportune moment to consolidate this emerging literature and lay the foundations of a developing field of study