Dr Dershewitz is joined by no fewer than 127 contributing authors in putting together this almost 900-page text. There are 23 chapters and a very practical appendix. Inherent in this type of publication is a significant difficulty with continuity of both advice and style. Since the authors must cover an enormous amount of material, the treatment of any subject tends to be rather superficial, but, then, this is certainly not intended as a definitive text. I did find this book to often have the weakness of providing a rather narrow range of advice that the physician might pass along to parents. There are many vexing, although perhaps not medically critical, problems (colic, toilet training, croup, etc) that lacked diversity of resolution. The chapter on croup was actually quite good, yet in the "ambulatory" setting, I like more in the way of practical suggestions (breathing cold air, for example, was mentioned).