TONIGHT IS TOO LATE

This book tries very hard. The author is no alarmist but is trying to reach a readership that resents this subject, personally rejects the findings discussed here, and has displayed no great inclination to read about it while displaying every evidence of confusion based on lack of information. The book is intended as parent education and describes the foremost problems facing parents of teen-agers--a rising percentage of unwanted pregnancy among unwed adolescents; a rising percentage of veneral disease among middle class youngsters: drug addiction in suburban high schools; teen-age alcoholism. In each case, she mines current research in adolescent behavior and then tries to make the findings meaningful by drawing on widely reported community cases (such as the Darien, Connecticut drinking scandal) and through case studies of individual teenagers. Also, for each trouble area, she digests the available facts--for instance, she describes v.d., what its symptoms are, how to recognize them, what personal and community steps can be taken. There is minimal sermonizing or blame assignment and much emphasis on the changing structure of our society, the need for attention and free exchange of information, realistic information, directed at young people faced with temptations previously reserved for adults. The bibliography is of accessible materials aimed at the concerned non-specialist.