The children of Deh Koh live in a society that is often harsh. Yet, while outward circumstances of post-revolutionary village life seem to limit young people's experiences, their strategies to surmount authority and personal demands, their games, pastimes, and the gendered patterns of interaction provide unexpected choices for movement and thought. In Children of Deh Koh, the youngsters emerge as unsentimental realists who manipulate their meager resources while learning from their elders ambiguous truths about how the world operates.

Friedl weaves together local practices, cognitive categories, folklore, analyses, and anecdotes concerning all aspects of growing up: from conception to early childhood, from religion to the correct way of using kinship terms.

Readers of Women Deh Koh will once more welcome Friedl's lyrical descriptions of a society both universal and unfamiliar. New readers will discover a world that defies easy categorization.