The enormous success enjoyed by Spock's little pocket-book in America has reminded the publishers of a vast public eagerly waiting to be told just how to bring up their children. A spate of parent guides must be expected to reach us within the next few years.

The Joseph-Zern guide to normal and abnormal development has a psycho-analytic background which, compared with Spock, is less smoothly incorporated into the popular style and text, the consequence being at times a curious juxtaposition of the superficial and the dry, the platitudinous and the profound. However, the information and advice given is usually sober and sensible and reflects current mental hygiene views. There are no delightful drawings, as in Spock, to enliven the text, and some of the examples chosen to illustrate the themes have a cultural loading which may confuse the non-American.