In his book, Mentoring Students and Young People: A Handbook of Effective Practice, Andrew Miller provides an invaluable resource for anyone interested in developing and/or establishing mentoring programs. This comprehensive and well-organized book provides extensive documentation of public and private mentoring programs from several English-speaking countries, primarily the UK and US, but also Canada and Australia. Case studies of a variety of forms of programs and mentoring populations, as well as evaluations of those programs, gives the reader not only a multitude of examples of the range of types of mentoring, but also the cultural context within which these programs have emerged and been developed. While the coverage and detail of information in the book may be overwhelming to the cover-to-cover reader, Miller's comprehensive review has made this a very valuable reference text for mentoring programs.

The book is organized clearly and includes three sections. The first section, titled "Understanding Mentoring," addresses the "concept" and "context" of mentoring and mentoring programs. The discussion is simultaneously a useful start for the mentoring novice, but is in-depth enough to be of interest for those with experience in the field. Most notable about this section of the text is Miller's discussion of the cultural and political context of the emergence of mentoring programs in several countries and regions. Beyond bureaucratic and budgetary concerns, the development of mentoring programs is undoubtedly shaped by cultural beliefs surrounding mentoring as well as political influences. Although Miller's theoretical discussion of the bases of these differences may be considered lacking (but fortunately not terribly relevant to his overall purpose), the cross-cultural discussion in this section and throughout the book is one of the greatest strengths of the text

In the second section of the book, titled "The Forms of Mentoring," specific mentoring programs and populations, such as business mentoring, intergenerational mentoring, peer mentoring, mentoring of "at risk" populations, minority ethnic mentoring, etc., are discussed. Each chapter is organized with a clear definition, description and discussion of the population and type of mentoring. This is followed by a review of the goals and aims of these types of programs as well as case studies, again from various countries, illustrating each type. Miller has included evaluation results of programs when available, thus providing the reader with empirical evidence of the program's success in relation to its goals. Beyond the detailed information about each type of program, most notable and useful in this section is the "issues" and "setting up" discussion. For each type of program Miller provides a "how to" guide for establishing particular types of programs as well as an identification of the issues likely to be encountered in doing so. While some may find the organization of this section of the book to be slightly repetitive, the consistency of discussion of the specific types of programs provides a clear foundation for comparison.

Having discussed specific types of mentoring programs, Miller then returns to a review of more general issues in the third section of the book, which is titled "Guide to Effective Mentoring." The issues present in all types of programs are examined: planning and managing, mentors, the mentoring process, and program evaluation. Although some of the information presented here could be gleaned from other parts in the book (for those who read it sequentially), much new information is also included. Again helpful to the novice and experienced, issues such as budgeting, management of mentoring staff, selection and training of mentors, accreditation of programs, and forms of evaluation are among the many topics covered in this section. The chapter on evaluation provides a description of several modes of evaluation, which is particularly useful since beyond assessing the success of a program and its specific aspects, evaluative data is also often the basis of funding for the initiation and continuance of programs.

The book is aptly described as a "comprehensive guide" to mentoring programs for young people. One would be hard pressed to find the breadth of information and discussion provided in this text, and find it so clearly organized and presented.

Marcia Ghidina
UNC Asheville