This is an important book. It challenges the reader to respect our society’s fundamental values in our approach to the problems of children living in disadvantaged conditions. It is a sober, documented, eloquent, often heart rending appeal for action, action to remedy problems. But what kind of problems? In the spring of 2008 the Montréal Public Health Department published a report on children’s school readiness. On average, 35% of Montréal children were not ready for school. In the most disadvantaged areas this rate rises to 46%. We know these findings have social origins and quite often, serious social consequences. However, after one day’s headlines and a few comments, this would be forgotten like yesterday’s news. And yet, these findings represent a human and a social disaster. Children are our future. How can we sideline one third of our future population from fruitful participation in a society that needs them? An enterprise loosing one third of its production would not survive.