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I confess I opened this book, "Talking with Patients," with much misgiving because so many books of this kind treat the reader as though he were intellectually on the level of a high-grade moron and make resounding pontifications about the obvious. This is no such book. First, it separates patients into two groups, children and adults, and further divides children by ages, pointing out the remarkable language and speech differences that children of different ages exhibit, particularly in terms of their reactions and responses to the inquiries of physicians. Perhaps the theme of this book is best stated by the author who says "Any patient who comes to a doctor, for whatever reason, deserves to be looked at with the broadest kind of vision. One must place all his sense organs at the disposal of the patient and must set his mind ready to receive the telltale messages that emanate