Book Review: What works in building resilience?

WHAT WORKS IN BUILDING RESILIENCE?

Tony Newman, Barnardo’s

ISBN 1904659020, £11.99

Star Rating: 4/5

Small enough to fit into your bag to read on the bus to work,
this book is also stimulating enough to make you miss your stop,
writes Joanna McCann.

A valuable addition to Barnardo’s What Works? series, the book
brings together key studies and their findings on resilience in
children. It addresses the questions of what resilience is and why
it is important to child welfare, why some children are more
successful than others at overcoming stressful episodes, and how
child welfare services can promote resilience.

Each chapter ends with a useful summary of key messages for
practice. The prologue, written by American academics in the field
is not as accessible as the main text and was more digestible when
read as an epilogue.

With bite-sized summaries of key research studies and on-line
resource list, this is an essential reference book for social
workers. It will also be of interest to foster carers, residential
staff and others to inform their work with children, their families
and communities.

Joanna McCann works for the National Children’s Bureau
and is an independent trainer and consultant.