THE CHILD CARE CRISIS: THE REAL COSTS OF DAY CARE FOR YOU-AND YOUR CHILD. Maynard, Freddie. New York, Viking, c1985. 285pp, cloth, $17.9S, ISBN 0-670-80705-2. (Contemporary Family Issues) Distributed by Penguin Books Canada. CIP Grades 12 and up Reviewed by donalee Moulton-Barrett Volume 13 Number 6 1985 November The Child Care Crisis by Fredelle Maynard is thoroughly researched, and written in an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand style. However, it has at its foundation the belief that ". . .one parent should be chief caretaker for the first three years of a child's life," and, as is to be expected, this strongly influences what Maynard chooses to say about day care and how she chooses to say it. Not that Maynard does not deal with opposing viewpoints or the opinions of critics. She does. Or rather she makes an attempt to do so. The reader, though, is left with the feeling that these opposing views have been merely dismissed and not dealt with in any depth. Maynard presents her opinion in very subtle ways. On page 15, for example, she introduces Jerome Kagan as simply, "Harvard professor." That is when he had something positive to say about day care. Nine pages later, when he says something that Maynard seems to approve of, Kagan is referred to as "one of the most open-minded and cautious investigators." Maynard also portrays the traditional mother/child both-at-home relationship in terms of fairy-tale wonderment. Even when she admits that "It is true that lots of mothers buy their cookies at the supermarket, are more involved with soap operas than Tinkertoys and complain bitterly as they do the dishes. It may even be true, as social psychologist Lois Hoff-man claims, that the average full-time mother spends less than ten minutes per day playing or reading to a pre-school child," she still maintains that the child is better off at home than in day care. For those parents who must work outside the home, Maynard discusses the kinds of day care available and their pros and cons. She also offers well-researched advice on choosing day care. And for mothers at home there is "How to Keep from Climbing the Walls." In the end what The Child Care Crisis does best is force readers, even those who disagree with Maynard, to think long and hard about the issue of day care. donalee Moulton-Barrett, Halifax, N.S.