''Making and Breaking Children's Lives'' examines how children are hurt in modern society. We hear about the effects of early abandonment, abuse and lack of attachment, but find that children's experiences are sanitised through medical diagnoses and frequently the 'help' offered is prescription drugs. In this challenging book a plurality of voices returns to one consistent theme - the importance of psychosocial context, which become increasingly dismissed as being irrelevant in the rush to label and prescribe. However, there is hope - the final section describes inspiring examples of how services and communities can be developed to give children and their families a chance to prosper - evidence that there is nothing inevitable about the breaking of children's lives.