and pediatricians to improve children's well being and functioning. Her background as researcher, teacher, and clinician, as well as mother, enables her to present a wide-ranging and detailed look at the experiences of parenting and ways to help children grow and achieve their potential in life. I've only read about half the book so far for my parenting class I'm taking. Overall it seems to be a fairly decent overview of what research and professionals are saying now, although I have spotted some inaccuracies in the book and it definitely shows some biases in certain areas. For example the book talks about the growing problem that there are more and more older people compared to younger people. Brooks says this is due to the lifespan increasing. The human lifespan is actually not increasing it remains around 120 years, it is life expectancy that is increasing not lifespan. She goes on to quote stats of life expectancy, I don't know if it was a mistake or is she doesn't know the difference between the two. Also it bothered me the way she described the 50's nuclear family as focusing on the emotional well being of all family members. This was far from the truth in many families which focused on the power of the male not on how everyone (particularly the wife and kids) was feeling. This seemed to reflect personal beliefs of the author or maybe she never really researched that particular area and just made assumptions. I'm a family