MEDIA REVIEWS

The Gale Encyclopedia of Childhood and

Adolescence by Jerome Kagan (Ed). Gale

Publishers, Detroit, 1998, 752 pages,

£76á00, ISBN 0 8103 9884 2.

The amount of child and adolescent

development-related information available

to professionals can be overwhelming and

sometimes con¯icting. This user-friendly

text is a complete compendium of child

development edited by an internationally

renowned researcher in child

development. Entries from foremost

experts in child development are included,

for example, T. Berry Brazelton. Written for

professionals in many ®elds, entries cover

comprehensively areas related to physical,

mental, social and moral development.

Content ranges from the conceptual such

as cognitive development to the most

practical, for example nail biting. The

organization of the book makes it easy to

locate items of interest. Entries are

alphabetically arranged. Each entry begins

with a de®nition of the term, for example

attribution theory. This is followed by a

summary of the topic. The length of each

entry varies from a short explanation to

more detailed information for complex

theories and concepts. Many entries

include a section for further study, listing

related references on the topic. There is

extensive use of tables and sidebars which

serve to highlight particularly important

information. This volume is destined to

become a classic. It is an extensive resource

with an indispensable wealth of informa-

tion. The contents can be used as a quick

reference as well as a guide to consult for

recommendations on further study. The

editor is to be commended on the

presentation of an enormous amount of

information and suggestions in such a

concise and readable form. The book would

be an excellent addition to the library of

faculty and advanced practice nurses

involved in the care of children. I would

highly recommend it as a reference for

every paediatric of®ce practice and patient

unit, as well as school of nursing libraries.

Jane H. Barnsteiner RN PhD FAAN

Professor of Paediatric Nursing

School of Nursing

University of Pennsylvania

and Director of Nursing Practice and

Research

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Philadelphia, USA

Making Sense of the Children Act. A Guide

for the Social and Welfare Services (third

edition) by Nick Allen. John Wiley and

Sons Ltd, Chichester, 1998, 284 pages,

£14á99, ISBN 0 471 97831 0.

Having needed to come to grips with child

and family law in the English, and latterly

Scottish, legal systems I found this book a

welcome addition to the range of

supporting texts. The Children Act is a

fairly comprehensive piece of legislation.

Despite this, a range of guidance docu-

ments, additional legislation and inevitably

case law has followed. Hence this third

edition has become necessary. The book is a

practical treatment of the Act rather than a

paragraph by paragraph exposition. As

such it avoids the use of innumerable foot-

notes and quotations and legal jargon. This

makes for a readable, and thus more acces-

sible, book for the wide range of those

involved in child welfare. It is not a com-

prehensive treatment of the Act. Indeed the

author points out that he has omitted

sections of the previous edition to keep

the book in reasonable bounds. As the

sections in question cover treatment of

young offenders and education supervision

orders this omission is perhaps not so vital

for nurses dealing with child welfare issues.

Each chapter begins with a brief overview of

relevant legislation as it stood prior to the

Act before examining the practicalities of

implementation. There is good use of case

law to illustrate how various aspects of the

Act have been clari®ed or further devel-

oped. Although perhaps associated in the

mind with Cleveland and other controver-

sial child care cases the Act was not a knee

jerk reaction to these situations. Rather it

was a result of a long processof research and

careful consideration which had begun

before these cases came to light. The book

gives an understanding of this process and

the thinking behind the resultant legisla-

tion. As it is not aimed speci®cally at a

health service perspective, matters such as

consent to treatment are dealt with in

relation to care and supervision orders

and parental responsibility. Questions

relating to issues of more relevance to a

clinical nurse, for example when a child is

able to sign his or her own consent for

routine surgery, are not examined. One

particularly useful section is that dealing

with the rights and role of the unmarried

father which often give rise to problems in a

ward situation. Increasingly so given

today's demographics. Health visitors and

school nurses would need additional texts

and some nurses would want to be more

fully conversant with the Act. However for

the majority of nurses working with

children this book could stand alone as a

guide to the Children Act and be a good

basic text for students in paediatric nurse

training. It would be a useful addition to a

ward library and essential to the library of

any hospital where children are cared for.

One word of caution in relation to

readership is that, as the author points

out, the book deals with only with legisla-

tion as it relates to England and Wales. It is

of limited value to those working in the

Scottish or Northern Irish jurisdictions.

Jim Robinson RGN RSCN MSc BA (Hons)

DMS Cert.Nur.Sc.

Lecturer in Children's Nursing

Royal Hospital for Sick Children

and Department of Nursing Studies

University of Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Scotland

Children and Social Welfare in Europe by

Keith Pringle. Open University Press,

Buckingham, Philadelphia, 1998, 224

pages, £16á99 ISBN 0 335 19701 9.

This is a book that students, practitioners

and policy makers interested in social

welfare reform will ®nd worth their time

and effort. A comparison and analysis of

how social welfare is organized for chil-

dren in a number of countries in Europe

and a delineation of various problems in

these countries that affect the well-being

of children are provided. Some of the

areas addressed are day care, ®nancial

Journal of Advanced Nursing, 1999, 30(6), 1472±1477

1472 Ó 1999 Blackwell Science Ltd