Book News

Children’s Cultural World (Part ofChildhood: The Series)M. J. Kehily & J. Swann (Eds.)Chichester: Wiley/Open University,

2003. pp. 317. £24.94 (pb). ISBN:

0-470-84694-1.

Children’s Cultural Worlds is the third

in a series of four books, part of the

Open University course, U212, Child-

hood. It is primarily a teaching resource

within the field of childhood and youth

studies. The reader is encouraged to

become actively involved through the

use of focused activities. For example,

in the section on the significance of

friendship, one is asked to think about

a current friend, and identify the fea-

tures of the relationship that are

important to the reader.

Different aspects of children’s worlds

are explored, from friendship to folklore,

identity to contemporary literature,

youth cultures, and children as con-

sumers. Though told mainly from a

Western ethno-cultural perspective, an

attempt is made to introduce non West-

ern narratives. For example, an Abori-

ginal story, �The Story of the Falling

Star’, with its associations to the link

between land and Aboriginal identity, is

given prominence in the chapter on fairy

tales and folk tales. Throughout the

book, examples are derived from differ-

ent cultures, age groups, and points in

history. I found the section on contem-

porary youth culture particularly good.

This would be a useful reference source

for parents in the troubled families I see

in clinical practice who reject modern

youth culture. The book could certainly

help with an understanding and appre-

ciation of the idea of distinctive youth

cultures, as a universal means through

which a young person today defines his/

her adolescent identity.

The section on children’s play was

also fascinating. It covers children’s

songs and folklore, use of toys and

fantasy, play as part of the development

of friendships, and the meaning of

friendships in different localities. Illus-

trations come from South Africa and

Brazil, as well as North America, Eur-

ope and China. The summary at the end

makes the point that characteristics of

friendships are culturally specific,

reflecting the social practices and val-

ues of the cultures. Nevertheless, they

share universal features of intimate

relations and social reciprocity.

The scope of the book is extremely

comprehensive with well written exam-

ples and vivid illustrations. The aca-

demic discussion derives from various

disciplines. Everyday activities are ex-

plored, making the point of distinctive-

ness of the child’s world.

I would recommend this book as

worthwhile reading for a professional

readership, and anyone interested in

childhood growth and development,

and contemporary issues.

Annie Lau

Chichester

Divorcing Children: Children’sExperience of Their Parents’DivorceI. Butler, L. Scanlan, M. Robinson,G. Douglas & M. MurchLondon & New York: Jessica Kingsley,

2003. pp. 227. £16.95 (pb). ISBN:

1-84310-103-3.

Drawing on a 3-year multidisciplinary

study of children’s divorced parents,

the authors present a guide to under-

standing the experience of children who

are experiencing parental separation.

The book provides an in depth account

of how children see themselves as act-

ively involved in the process of divorce,

and how they shape that experience.

The topics discussed include how chil-

dren find out that parents are separ-

ating, how children tell other people

about what is happening to them and

their family, how parent-child relation-

ships change after separation, and

ways in which children adapt and cope

during and immediately after their par-

ents are divorced.

The high points of this book reveal the

most common difficulties for children in

a non-clinical population. The book

demonstrates the resiliencies developed

by children, and indicates how difficult

many parents still find it to give their

children accurate information that will

help them think their own way through

the changing experience of parental

separation, and family transitions inclu-

ding new partners. The children’s voices

are well presented and clear on such

issues as parental conflicts, contact,

ongoing anger management between

parents, coming to terms with new part-

ners, and their own adaptations.

The range of experience presented in

this book may already be familiar to

child psychiatrists and psychologists

who have worked in the changing field

of family life. It is likely that within child

mental health the more extreme aspects

of reaction to the divorce process will

already have been presented and

worked with. This book, however, pro-

vides the backdrop of normality against

which extremes can be measured. For

those who are already immersed in the

field it is likely to add little that is

already unknown. There is little refer-

ence to the extremities of parental

behaviour, or the rigidities in post-

divorce contact disputes. The book,

however, is a good working guide to

the field as a whole, with the particular

strength of the children’s point of view

being clearly laid out. It reveals how

little children understand of the legal

process and how useful it may be for

them to have professionals take them

clearly through the normative range of

what may happen. It also draws atten-

tion to how often children are used as

support for their parents during these

difficult times of marriage break down,

and how this affects their own ability to

function during that time.

Gill Gorell Barnes

Consultant Family Therapist, London

Causes of Conduct Disorder andJuvenile DelinquencyB. B. Lahey, T. E. Moffitt & A. Caspi(Eds.)London & New York: Guildford press,

2003. pp. 362. ISBN: 1-57230-881-8.

This book boasts an impressive array of

authors. The editors, leading experts in

the field, requested that the authors, in

relation to conduct disorder and juve-

nile delinquency, (1) advance explicit,

disconfirmable causal hypotheses; and

(2) provide specific descriptions of the

crucial studies needed to disconfirm

their hypotheses. It was particularly

welcome to note that the authors were

asked �to provide hypotheses regarding

the causes of differences in conduct

problems as a function of age, gender,

race/ethnicity and socio-economic sta-

tus’ issues, which in my view merit

more attention than they are sometimes

given.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Volume 10, No. 1, 2005, pp 47–48

� 2005 Association for Child Psychology and Psychiatry.Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA

The initial chapter by Rutter is an

overview of research methodology. As

one would expect, it is erudite but as a

non-researcher I did not find it easy

reading. The following four chapters

examine general and integrative casual

models and the following chapters focus

on specific aspects of the origin of

conduct problems, including childhood

experiences, cognitive factors and gen-

etic, environmental and biological influ-

ences. Having persevered with the first

chapter, I was pleasantly surprised by

how very readable I found the remain-

der of the book. The chapters linked

together to provide a coherent, compre-

hensive narrative of the complex prob-

lem. The book contains a wealth of

information regarding what is already

known about conduct disorder and

many thought provoking ideas about

future research and intervention possi-

bilities.

Whilst reading this book, not surpris-

ingly I found myself reflecting on par-

ticular children and adolescents and

their families. The book will serve me as

an excellent reference source and will

no doubt help me both to maintain a

necessary curiosity and to constantly

refine formulations and review treat-

ment options. Given the large number

of children and adolescents presenting

to CAMHS with a conduct disorder, the

book is highly relevant to a large audi-

ence.

Claire Dimond

St George’s Hospital, London

Children and Parents: ClinicalIssues for Psychologists andPsychiatristsR. Gupra & D. Parry-Gupta (Eds.)London/Philadelphia: Whurr, 2003.

pp. 267. £25.00(pb). ISBN: 1-86156-

351-5.

This book sets out to support �evidencebased practice’. The editors are con-

cerned to focus on issues of key interest

to clinicians; particularly those that

they judge are not usually covered by

the evidence based literature. This

means that they include an interesting

but diverse mix of topics, including

working with children with deliberate

self-harm, the evidence base in relation

to adoption, and the role of grandpar-

ents. Chapters focusing on very detailed

accounts of evidence in relation to par-

ticular types of difficulties (e.g. in rela-

tion to social phobia and conduct

disorder) sit alongside those that aim

to provide broad sweep overviews (e.g.

in relation to genetics and behaviour).

The diverse mix of topics and different

levels of detail across chapters can

make the book rather uneven at times.

However, as long as one accepts that

the book is not aiming to provide com-

prehensive coverage of all issues related

to the working with children and par-

ents, then there is much that is of real

interest here.

The areas covered are grounded in

many of the issues that are of everyday

concern for practising clinicians. Tech-

nical terms and extensive debates

about categorisation are avoided, and

the focus is on issues as they arise in

clinical settings and the provision of

succinct summaries of the existing evi-

dence.

I would recommend this book as a

resource for clinicians to help them

develop their appreciation of the evi-

dence base in relation to a range of

topics, where otherwise assumption

and pre-judgement can so easily hold

sway.

Miranda Wolpert

National Institute of Mental Health

(England)/YoungMinds

Interprofessional Collaboration:From Policy to Practice in Healthand Social CareAudrey Leatheard (Ed.)Hove & New York: Brunner-Routledge,

2003. pp. 357. £18.99. ISBN: 1-58391-

176-6.

This book tends to approach the topic of

working together from an organisational

perspective. Its editor is Professor of

Interprofessional Studies in London

and most of the authors hold academic

positions. The 24 chapters range across

modelsof collaboration, thecontribution

ofmanagers, ethics, teamwork, informa-

tion technology, disability services, ser-

vices for older people, primary care, user

partnerships, the voluntary sector, and

training. One specifically addresses

safeguarding children and another the

care planning approach in mental

health. The overall message is, not sur-

prisingly, that collaboration encourages

a better service (although mergers may

not necessarily have the intended organ-

isational benefits). Joint training events

are a way to overcome interprofessional

�tribalism’, as is consultation, while the

process of collaboration (including

teamwork) is assisted by clear models

and compatible policies, together with

codes that acknowledge respective pro-

fessional expertise.

Because of its orientation towards the

organisational and policy levels, I feel

that this book will mostly resonate with

those involved in management, who will

find it to contain much of interest.

However, practitioners struggling day-

to-day with poorly functioning teams or

agency networks may have preferred

greater emphasis on the psychology of

collaboration, including group and sys-

temic processes and the inter-personal

complexities of communication and

leadership.

Peter Reder

London

Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and Mathe-maticsDorian YeoLondon: Whurr Publishers, 2003.

pp. 458. £35.00 (pb). ISBN: 1-86156-

323-X.

In this book, the author, an experi-

enced teacher, provides a wealth of

practical suggestions for supporting

the mathematical development of chil-

dren with dyslexia and dyspraxia.

There are sections on counting, the

number system, addition, subtraction,

multiplication and division. The author

identifies the kinds of difficulties that

are likely to occur, for example, due to

limitations in language and working

memory, and this fits well with a cur-

rent emphasis in numeracy research.

A strength of the book is the careful

explanation of the reasoning behind the

interventions proposed. In each case,

there is reference to recent, relevant

research and theoretical debate. This

means, however, that the book has to

span a wide range of ideas and levels of

explanations. It is difficult to maintain

continuity when presenting theoretical

constructs and specific examples of

children’s responses or teaching equip-

ment so closely together. A further

challenge for the book is the lack of

evidence demonstrating the effective-

ness of particular interventions. This

book is a reminder that these studies

are needed. I would recommend this

book for its combination of thorough-

ness and accessibility and expect it

will be very useful for practitioners to

refer to.

Rachel George

University of East London

48 Book News