BOOK REVIEWS 226 c F. CHRISTIE & A. SIMPSON, (EDS.), LITERACY AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES (LONDON, EQUINOX. 2010. PP. VI, 141) Review by Dr Nicola Rolls School of Academic Language and Learning, Charles Darwin University _ This timely volume assembles current perspectives on literacy and social responsibility from the point of view of scholars and practitioners in language and literacy education and social work. The authors provide theoretical and practical explanations of why literacy is such an urgent factor for overcoming social disadvantage and for providing all groups in our society the opportunity to enjoy lives enriched by the opportunities literacy affords. While the discussions are situated in an Australian context, each of the ten chapters references global research and examples, thus reinforcing the ubiquity of the challenges and the urgency of building literate communities in the 21 st century. Readers should not be misled by the title into thinking this is a book about the importance of being “literate at social responsibility”, as the subtitle suggests, the book provides multiple perspectives about why the provision of access to literacy is an urgent social responsibility. In bringing together the views and experience of educators on the one hand, and social workers on the other, the book encompasses the educational and social consequences of poor literacy and the shared view that as a ‘just society’ we have a social responsibility to provide literacy to all (p.4). Further, being a cross disciplinary volume, discipline specific jargon is kept to a minimum, consequently, this text is written in language that is highly accessible to a wide, albeit “literate”, audience. The book is comprised of ten chapters: (1) Literacy and Social Responsibility; (2) Literacy as a Theme in Educational Theory and in Policy; (3) Multiple Literacies: Implications for Changed Pedagogy; (4) Socially Responsible Literacy Education: Towards an ‘Organic Relation’ to our Place and Time; (5) Literacy and the Arts; (6) The Social Context of Literacy Acquisition: Achieving Good Beginnings; (7) The Experience of Youth Off the Streets; (8) Beating Educational Inequality with an Integrated Reading Pedagogy; (9) Enhancing Literacy Education for Refugee Children; and (10) Envoi. The chapters are organised to provide first the context and inspiration for this examination of literacy as an essential social responsibility. Following this, the historical and changing nature of literacy and literacy pedagogy, and the implications on pedagogy for teaching literacy is discussed. Building on these understandings, the relationship between literacy and social disadvantage is explained with a focus on particular disadvantaged groups, including those of a pre-school age, disadvantaged youth, Indigenous children in remote communities and refugee ARAL 36:2 (2013), 226-229 DOI 10.1075/aral.36.2.07rol ISSN 0155–0640 / E-ISSN 1833–7139 © AUSTRALIAN REVIEW OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS