How frail the human heart must be—a mirrored pool of thought. So deep and tremulous an instrument of glass that it can either sing, or weep.—Sylvia Plath, "I Thought That I Could Not Be Hurt," 1946
That "Heart Disorders" rather than "Heart Diseases" is used in the subtitle of the second edition of this comprehensive and justifiably acclaimed text indicates the authors' sensitivity to parents of children with heart problems. The text's cardiologic science, wise child-in-context approach, and sensible-but-caring attitude are a credit to its 3 authors: Neill, an emerita professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md, and a clinical pediatric cardiologist with wide experience; Edward Clark, the medical director of the Primary Children's Medical Center at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center, Salt Lake City, and chairman of that university's Department of Pediatrics; and Carleen Clark, a school and public health nurse who has experienced firsthand the anxieties and fears of parents who are coping with their children's heart disease.