DANE, Barbara 0. and Carol LEVINE, eds., AIDS AND THE NEW ORPHANS: Coping with Death. West Port, CT: Auburn House, 1994, 158pp., $17.95 softcover. Since the AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) appeared on the scene in late 1970s, it has been treated often as a political and moral issue because it was initially viewed as a disease of the gay and lesbian people who were suspected to be intravenous drug users, and in many ways outcasts. The most disappointing aspect of this situation has been that for several years the people who suffered from this disease, which still remains incurable, were stigmatized and their suffering continues. In AIDS and the New Orphans. by Dane and Levine, the authors fill a void by putting together recent research in nine articles by scholars who have focused their recent attention on grief, death and bereavement. These include not only those who contacted AIDS but also those whose loved ones are also infected or suffered from the death of the loved ones, thus leaving behind orphans who have no one to care for. Thus the title of the book, The New Orphans. To accomplish this end, of exploring the coping strategies of the new orphans, Dane and Levine obtain support from other contributors to the book. Dane introduces the subject of grieving in the time of AIDS, death and bereavement with relevant history and extent of the disease supported by figures with cross-national, racial and ethnic comparisons, and the number of U.S. children and youth involved in the bereavement process. To an extent surprising and also gratifying for an edited book, that the authors of the nine contributions were quite self-disciplined in addressing the issues of coping with death, in many instances illustrating distress and grief through case reports. By seeking to analyze, Dane focuses on the concept of death in Western culture suggesting that the denial of AIDS death is culturally constructed. Such a denial is further necessitated because AIDS death is especially stigmatizing. She challenges the antiquated view that fear of death has no meaning to children; on the contrary, children are capable of a wide range of grief responses. In the next chapter, Kenneth Doka examines the role of religion and spirituality and their relationship to AIDS and resultant grief in the lives of the children. The following two chapters by Karolynn Siegel and Barbara Freund and by Luis Zayas and Kathleen Romano, explore the natural reactions and feelings of unfairness marked by guilt and anguish among latency-age children and adolescents, respectively. Although the book does not include chapters on all major minority groups, it does includ a chapter on the Latino community by Esther Chachkes and Regina Jennings, and another on Black American communities by Penelope Johnson-Moore and Lucretia Phillips. …