The focus of this book is the very early stages of language acquisition, with (an inevitable)particular focus on phonological and lexical development. As such, it might have been better if enfantsin the original title had been translated as “infants,” because themain title might mislead one into thinking that the book would illuminate a longer developmentalpath than it actually does. That said, there is much in this volume that might interest a secondlanguage researcher interested in second language phonology and lexis who would like to bereminded of what the human animal does under the natural circumstances of first languageacquisition. It presents a particularly clear picture of the sensitivities of infants to human sounds,as well as a detailed account of how those sensitivities become tuned to particular languagecharacteristics very early on.