BOOK REVIEWS 4’9

Obviously, there are some areas that are not included in the book. In the opening chapter, Richard Lemer summarizes some of the main issues of adolescence, but none of the authors in the volume build a case for early adolescence being a distinct phase of the life span, at least beyond the issue of pubertal changes. In addition, while many issues concerning the family are presented, there is no clear summary of how family interactions g-o through transitions during this period. Rather than a criticism of the book, these are simply issues that will not be found addressed here.

G. K. Leigh

Residential Work in Residential Child Care-Partnership in Practice. John Kelsall and Billy McCullough. Boys and Girls Welfare Society, 1988. ISBN 869801 040. Eg .oo (paperback).

John Kensall’s and Billy McCullough’s little book is an important contribution to a field where there is a dearth of literature. It is a wise, readable book based on an exploratory study of four different residential units; a children’s hospital, a custodial setting, a special boarding school and a children’s home. The four were chosen “because they were broadly representative of the four traditions within residential child care”. The study was based on interviews with families and staff.

The book takes each unit in turn through the eyes of families. It considers the process of family work from initial contact and preliminary work through the management of and engagement of a family during the residential phase, through to the period of aftercare. The discussion is interspersed with lively and telling quotations.

What makes the book less than satisfactory is the very spread of the study of a range of residential units. Also, whilst the prescriptive or discussion part of the book has much wisdom, it feels as though the authors are still locked into the process of the study with too much reference to each unit and quotations. This part of the book needs to be more ordered, simpler, and to finish with a set of questions is a little frustrating. Residential child care in social work has moved fast towards family work and workers are hungry for guidance. This book invites a second from BGWS which focuses on the residential family centre with good clear prescription on how to organize it.

According to a typology by Lorraine Fox “kinship defenders” promote family work at all cost, whereas “society as parent protagonists” are quite happy to see a cut off point. Thank goodness, this book takes the former position. I commend it, coupled with the American, James Whittaker’s “Caring for Troubled Children” as a good starter pack. I hope we will now see more.

Chris Warren

Adoption and Disncption: Rates, Risks and Responses. Richard P. Barth and Marianne Berry. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1988. pp. 247. DM42.

The adoption of older children is on the increase, both in the U.S. and the U.K.,