There is a continuing need for a book of manageable size that can be used as an introduction and resource by trainees and professionals whose work brings them into contact with issues concerned with child mental health. Most texts in English that aim to perform this function are out of print so there is an important gap to be filled. Although Goodman and Scott have gone a long way to achieve their goal there are a number of deficiencies and disappointments.

The audience explicitly includes a wide range of disciplines from education, social work, nursing, and psychology to paediatrics, psychiatry, and general practice, yet there is remarkably little mention of the contributions of disciplines other than child psychiatry to the assessment and treatment of children with psychological and psychiatric disorders. For example, there is no significant account of psychological assessment nor the manner in which teachers can be included in treatment programmes.

The ordering of certain chapters and sections seems unsatisfactory so that assessment precedes classification and epidemiology, and …