I am a busy child psychiatrist and I suspect, like many others in my position, find the time for reading squeezed by ‘post NHS fatigue syndrome’. Depression in children, as the editor of the book comments, is not easily evaluated and difficult to treat. For these reasons I looked to this book for clear narrative, a review of current information, and new ideas.

This is the first in a series of Cambridge Monographs in child and adolescent psychiatry designed to cover major syndromes affecting children’s mental health. What is different about this series is its emphasis on the effect of normal and abnormal child development on depressive …