NEED TO KNOW SERIES. Ecstasy, Heroin, Alcohol, Tobacco. By Sean Connolly. Heinemann Library pound;10.99 each.

Children’s books on health-related subjects need to trust young readers with honest, objective and relevant information. Of the three titles in the Health Issues series, only Sexually Transmitted Diseases fully meets this criterion. Drugs is an emphatically negative book, out of touch with current wisdom on good drug education practice. Though luridly illustrated chapters deal with drugs and groups of drugs in an attempt to inform, the author withholds balance and (in places) accuracy, not trusting her audience to develop the skills to take responsibility for their own actions.

Smoking is less judgmental, offering a more objective, though still largely negative, look at tobacco, its effects and the social issues raised by its global presence. I welcome discussion of tobacco marketing’s role in ensnaring new customers, but the link with slimming in teenage girls is under-emphasised.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases provides comprehensive material on sexually transmitted infections (the preferred term now) without injunctions or moralising, and deals constructively with issues of prevention, recognition and treatment. The illustrations are excellent. I was pleased to see sensitive discussion of the pressures and conflicts young people feel in relation to sexual activity.

Information is wide-ranging and well illustrated in the Need to Know series. Ecstasy covers the first synthesis of MDMA in Germany in 1912, charts the drug’s recent rise to popularity among clubbers in the UK and elsewhere, and identifies the effects and risks and ways to respond to those suffering side-effects. It is refreshing not to find “Don’t do it” messages in a book aimed at young people. But one noticeable lapse is the story of the death of Leah Betts, and the absence of any reference to the large amount of water she is alleged to have drunk.

The other titles in this series are thoughtful and well researched. Even in the case of heroin, the reader is given the stark facts and not told what conclusions to draw from them with the usual finger-wagging warnings. The facts speak for themselves.

Adrian King