J. R. Dudley and G. Stone. (2001). Fathering Risk: Helping Nonresidential Fathers. New York: Springer, 326 pp. ISBN: 0-8261-1418-0, $46.95. As suggested by the title, the purpose of Fathering Risk: Helping Nonresidential Fathers is to make a case that nonresidential fathers are at and to alert readers about how to help them. The book is divided into four parts that consider why these fathers are risk, what can be done about it, what practitioners should be aware of when working with fathers risk, and how some programs are designed to help fathers risk. Dudley and Stone begin with the state of in the United States. The first chapter is provocative and interesting but disjointed, jumping from a list of disturbing facts about the status of fathering to historical changes in the father role to men's movements to problems confronting men. The latter discussion switches back and forth between men's issues and father's issues so often that the relationship between the two became unclear to this reviewer. The at-risk status of nonresident fathering-the central issue of this book-is better illustrated in the second and third chapters, with an informative review of the research literature that focuses more narrowly and more coherently on three groups of at-risk nonresident fathers: divorced fathers, adolescent fathers, and unmarried older fathers. These groups of fathers are said to be risk because their contact with their children tends to diminish over time, often disappearing altogether. Finally, although Dudley and Stone ask and try to answer the question Why is the problem of the disappearing father not taken more seriously? in the first chapter, the research on nonresident fathers is not given serious consideration until the second chapter, and it becomes apparent in the third chapter that this is the wrong question to ask. They argue that too much emphasis in the mass media and research literature has been placed on father absence, and that more research is needed on father presence-that is, how fathers' involvement can benefit families. The remainder of the book focuses on how to help fathers, and this is where Dudley and Stone make their greatest contribution to the literature on fathering. This begins with a discussion of the ways that professionals working with families can promote effective fathering. Speaking from a perspective that emphasizes strengths, collaboration, the client's embeddedness in family and larger social systems, and the diversity of families, Dudley and Stone endorse intervention principles and strategies that are culturally sensitive and holistic, embrace a broad definition of father involvement (drawing upon the typology proposed by Lamb, 1986), enfranchise rather than alienate fathers as parents, and promote their identities as parents (as studied by Ihinger-Tallman, Pasley, & Buehler, 1995). The emphasis on family systems and on fathers' strengths rather than their problems is even greater in the third part of the book, as is an emphasis on gender-sensitive practice. The chapters in the third section examine assessment issues (e.g., special needs of fathers after divorce, chemical abuse, gender issues)-the challenges that professionals may experience in providing services for fathers, including those involving the individual fathers (mostly male gender role issues, such as dealing with emotions) and their families (e.g., dealing with the mother's resistance to fathers joining in family therapy)-and the issues that they should address in support group services (e. …