Erik J. Knorth, Leiden University, The Netherlands, Peter M. Van den Bergh, Leiden University, The Netherlands and Fop Verheij, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands

’This impressive, internationally authored volume speaks directly to the questions of care, treatment, education-for-living, nurture and safety that lie at the very heart of contemporary policy and practice for vulnerable youth and their families in modern societies. The senior editors, Knorth, Van den Bergh and Verheij from Holland - all recognized researchers in youth care and adolescent treatment - have assembled an impressive array of contributors from Europe and North America, all speaking to various aspects of the knowledge and skill base, training and education for youth care workers who staff a variety of residential and community centered non-residential programs for troubled youths...This book will be helpful to all who work with troubled youth, their families and those who care for them. It will serve as a valuable primary or secondary text for courses in child and youth care work, social work with children and families and adolescent development. The text is accessible and replete with practical suggestions for improving youth care practice, policy and research.’ James K. Whittaker, University of Washington, USA ’I would recommend this book to teachers and advocates of social work as well as front-line practitioners wanting to provide better outcomes for children, young people and families.’ Social Work Review ’I am already planning to use this text in a course I teach on policy and the profession in child and youth care, and I would encourage others to do the same. Cheers to the editors and chapter authors for taking on a difficult task and succeeding in addressing two very important topics for children, families, and child and youth care.’ European Journal of Social Work

• Contents: Professionalization and participation in child and youth care: two sides of one coin?, Erik J. Knorth, Peter M. Van den Bergh and Fop Verheij; Historical Perspectives: Demystification in the century of the child: the conflict between romanticism and disenchantment in (residential) youth care from 1830s to 2000, Jeroen J.H. Dekker; The century of the participating child, Micha De Winter. Professionalization: Child and youth care work at the cross-road of the century: from a recognized profession back to an amateur humanitarian mission?, Emmanuel Grupper; Building a professional identity: the challenge for residential child and youth care, Margaret Lindsay; Knowing a way to professional child and youth care: the therapeutic home parent model, Craig N. Shealy; The role of residential child and youth care workers in care planning: an exploratory study, Erik J. Knorth and Monika Smit; Professionalization and institutional abuse in the United Kingdom, Matthew J. Colton; Cultural factors related to burnout in child and youth care workers in thirteen cultures, Victor Savicki; workload and prevention of burnout in special child and youth care services: a system analysis, Jef Breda and Elke Verlinden. Participation: The involvement of families in planning and delivering care, Mona SandbÅ“k; Participation by children in care planning: research and experiences in the United Kingdom, Ruth Sinclair; Early residential foster care: parental experiences concerning their co-operation with professional workers, Marie-Pierre Mackiewicz; Listen to the client. (Foster) children about ’difficult’ parents: how to handle conflicts with them, Elly singer, Jeannette Doornenbal and Krista Okma; Listen to the client. Battered and abusing women speak of their early victimization in out of home placement, June Price. Epilogue: The challenge in child and youth care research and practice: professionalization and participation, Erik J. Knorth, Peter M. Van den Bergh and Fop Verheij; In