Child Care Today: Getting It Right for Everyone (Vintage)
*Starred Review* Leach, author of the wildly popular Your Baby and Child, which has sold more than two million copies since first being published in 1978 (revised in 1997), delivers another parenting tome that will likely become the standard by which all other child-care books are measured. This thoroughly researched, heavily footnoted compendium evaluates the state of child care in the Western world in the context of caring for children (as opposed to rearing children). The rapidly changing makeup of the postindustrial world means the needs of families are changing rapidly, too, and Leach covers the topic in four parts: “Child Care Today,” which defines the term and puts it into a cultural context; “Types of Child Care,” which breaks down into two general types: “Family Care” (parents, grandparents, or live-in help) and “Formal Care” (day cares, before and after school, etc.); “Quality of Care,” which looks at the issue from various viewpoints and helps outline how to choose child care; and “Moving On,” which examines the politics and future of child care. Though Leach’s writing is precise and scientific, reflecting her training at Cambridge and the London School of Economics, she somehow keeps the narrative approachable and interesting. Her plea for looking at child care as an investment rather than an expense (well-raised children make well-adjusted adults, after all) comes through loud and clear and makes perfect sense no matter your political persuasion. There’s no doubt Child Care Today will become the bible on the subject. Stock up. --Mary Frances Wilkens--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.