By Diane, DeBell ( ed .) London : Hodder Arnold , 2007 ISBN 9780340907207 , 104 pp, £19.99 (pb ) Public Health Practice and the School-Age Population combines contributions from 17 specialists working in related fields across the UK. Its 11 chapters focus on particular aspects of this vast topic including its historical development, activity in the vital sites of home, school and community and key contemporary concerns. Although the last chapter explicitly focuses on growing efforts to connect The child’s perspective and service delivery, this is a recurring theme throughout, with research findings and quotations evidencing the views of young people. With an emphasis on Every Child Matters, each author sets out the legislative and policy background for particular initiatives. Far from dry reading, these sections reference the work of public health pioneers, drawing in places on evidence from outside the UK. One chapter quotes school nurses in 1908 New York reporting the success of dual-focus interventions in school and home environments. Of interest in comparative and historical terms, such passages reinforce that the need for better partnership working persists — as do the inequalities underpinning contemporary challenges to children’s health. As Moules and O’Brien effectively demonstrate, improving child health actually requires us to find ways of gaining admission to the child’s perspective (p. 273). They advocate the involvement of children and young people both as informed and insightful service users, and as rights-bearing citizens enjoying ‘healthy’ interaction in decision-making communities. However, while welcoming the fact that government policy increasingly demands a role for young people in service design and delivery, the authors caution that there are still barriers to their meaningful participation. One such barrier concerns difficulties encountered in mapping existing work. To date, limited dissemination of learning puts a ceiling on the impact of their involvement for both young people and practitioners. The book is certainly not intended as a comprehensive guide to local initiatives. However, readers recognising the problems raised may well be eager to share experience. One means of so doing not mentioned in the text is the ParticipationWorks portal at http://www.participationworks.org.uk— the homepage of which (at time of writing in January 2008) carries prominent features on the work of young people on sexual health, bullying and the personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) curriculum – some of the issues emphasised by DeBell and colleagues. A problem raised by each and every contributor concerns the shortcomings of the existing evidence base – not in relation to public health problems per se, but rather the effectiveness of interventions designed to address them. The authors urge attention to this as a matter of priority, while acknowledging the inherent difficulties in ‘rigorously’ evaluating much activity, particularly that engaging young people in their own leisure space and in the informal encounters which — paradoxically — they may particularly value. With equality introduced as vital to a field dominated by the consequences of inequality, many chapters devote attention to the challenges of reaching vulnerable groups. The importance of sensitive social marketing to the delivery of public health messages is reinforced with reference to thought-provoking typologies and warnings against assumptions that young people’s attitudes and behaviours link in any simple way to ‘official’ ethnic or other categories in which they are deemed to belong. Informative and packed with useful references, the text is clear and accessible for those without in-depth knowledge of the area. The book will be of use to those planning, conducting and evaluating public health initiatives involving children – as well as those simply interested in what is a high-profile and contentious set of issues. Readers are referred to many excellent online sources – on subjects ranging from asylum-seekers’ access to services to initiatives on outdoor play — particularly useful given the fast-changing environment. However, these are sometimes hidden within the text, with the risk that those dipping into a particular chapter might miss out. It would be helpful were they listed, as are Acts of Parliament, at the close of each chapter, or compiled under relevant headings at the end of the edited collection. The book is an engaging and motivating read, succinctly summarising the challenges with which practitioners must grapple, the directions and principles indicated by research, and the consequences for young people and public health if they fail. Sobering statistics are sprinkled throughout. Helpfully, however, the authors marshal their evidence towards what can be done – in the context of grounded insights into young people’s lives, loves and livers today. Rather than deploring a culture of risk-taking, they exhort practitioners to pull back from paternalism; and ask young people – as readers might ask themselves –What could you do, in your current situation, to help yourself, and why? (p. 256).