McHale (psychology, U. of South Florida) and Lindahl (psychology, U. of Miami, Florida) assemble 13 chapters by psychologists and human development, social work, and family specialists from the US and Europe who describe concepts, theories, and research underlying coparenting and clinical applications in a wide range of family forms and systems. They discuss what is known about coparenting in nuclear, fragile, and extended kinship systems of different ethnicities and socioeconomic circumstances, as well as adolescent mothers and family systems headed by gay and lesbian parents. They also describe interventions through education in childbirth classes; encouraging unmarried mothers to coparent; using video-taped feedback to assess dynamics and affect change; implementing parent education programs, parenting coordination, and mediation to promote coparenting after divorce; intervening in biological-foster parent systems within foster care; and multigenerational households. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)