This valuable and unpatronising series deals with medical conditions that are often surrounded by embarrassment and ignorance. Aimed at readers aged 14 to 16, each book covers facts and attitudes within its 56 pages. Case studies sit beside scientific information, and discussion of social perspectives is fitted into a wider exploration of how it feels to be affected. The historical background is often intriguing: we learn, for example, how babies with Down syndrome were sometimes used in Renaissance art to portray the innocence of cherubs or the Christ child. The section on causes, characteristics, diagnosis and prognosis are set out with clarity, using a judicious mixture of explanatory text, highlighted topic boxes, diagrams and photographs. We learn how to read the signs of an approaching sickle cell crisis and how to cope with it. There is a direct account of the stress and fear that can afflict families of sufferers from MS, as teenagers need to take responsibility for an afflicted parent of feel a sense of guilt that they may be to blame. But the central message of all the books is that knowledge is a vital part of a positive life.