The title of this book should be ‘Autism Spectrum Disorders in childhood’. Autism Spectrum Disorders is the first edition of a hugely impressive joint publication from the M.I.N.D. Institute, UC Davis, from Autism Speaks and from the UCLA Centre for Autism Research and Treatment, running to 1415 pages. As the editors point out there are many books on autism research. The guiding vision for this book is an emphasis on autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) as a ‘biological condition framed from a biomedical perspective’. The first edition contains 81 chapters from over 180 contributors working in many parts of the world. As the editors state, there are initial chapters discussing the history and phenomenology of ASD followed by analyses of the core features of ASDs. The book then moves to important co-morbid (child and adolescent) psychiatric and medical conditions associated with autism and several chapters discussing different aspects of the broader autism phenotype (in childhood). The next section delves into the neurobiological facets of ASDs including what is known about brain chemistry, electrophysiology, imaging and neuropathology, followed by a section on aetiological factors. Genetics, genomics and emerging environmental factors are considered here (it is this reader's impression that these chapters are already looking out of date). Animal models across a wide range of species are covered. The final sections cover policy issues, including a fascinating account of political lobbying and, sparsely, the topic of intervention. Few research areas remain overlooked in this thoroughly executed volume. I was delighted to see user input too. As an epidemiologist working in this area I can strongly recommend Fombonne's clear and updated review, while pointing out that it was completed too soon to cover new emerging work on adult epidemiology and the challenging discovery of far higher ASD rates in children in South Korea than found previously in other parts of the world. I suspect, inevitably, some other chapters will soon look outdated given the breathless pace of new developments in this research-active branch of the neurosciences, neurology and psychiatry. Are there other drawbacks? Some readers may find many chapters unnecessarily long and the writing style prolix. Often it is un-self-critical. A welcome exception, as one would expect, is Michael Rutter's overview of the field, with a critical and thoughtful evaluation of what research findings are reliable and deserving of impact and what are not, together with a generous list of suggestions for future hypothesis-led research. Daniel Geshwin's overview of genetics also offers a deserved critical comment on the technologically driven trend for discovery research in that ‘as the field has been carried in [this] tide of technology, we may have failed to adequately address many critical issues of disease phenotypes and disease boundaries that now currently face us.’ Rutter too puzzles over the failure to find explanations in the laboratory for the substantial autism heritability estimates obtained from twin studies. For this reader the greatest disappointment must be that there is almost nothing on the adult, nor indeed scarcely a suggestion that this is needed. As in much writing on autism by researchers one would be mistaken for thinking that this is a condition of childhood, which is odd because most people alive today with the condition are no longer children. Of course it makes sense to study the possible causes of a developmental disorder close to its origins, but development is a lifelong process and much can be learnt from its later phases. While it could be said that less can be described, given the relatively tiny amount of research on adults, this cannot be said for example for the highly important topics of screening and intervention. Concerning the adult, readers will find more in Digby Tantam's excellent new, single-author volume (Autism Spectrum Disorders Throughout the Life Span, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London, 2012). To address the paucity of research evidence on interventions readers will also find far more on interventions in the Research Autism website (http://www.researchautism.net/pages/welcome/home.ikml) summarizing health, education, social and other interventions, mainly in childhood, and in the UK NICE Guidelines on autism in adults (http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/live/13774/59684/59684.pdf). As a clinician serving adults in England, where national policy and services for the adult on the autism spectrum are beginning to develop, this is a disappointing aspect of the otherwise vigorous North American autism scene reflected in this book. Temple Grandin's chapter makes riveting reading, doing much to compensate succinctly for many of the drawbacks of this volume: written by an adult with autism about what worked for her in childhood and what adults now need especially in relation to successful employment but also in dealing with sensory (environmental) sensitivities throughout the life-course. Carping aside, this book can be seen as a valuable, ‘on the shelf’ resource, for researchers and a detailed and convenient background reading resource for child practitioners. Whether parents and their teenage children on the spectrum, soon to leave school or college will welcome it as they face an adult world with uncertainty and little prospect of long-term support remains to be seen.