“It’s like Marmite, you either love it or hate it.” This phrase must be one of the most common modern clichés—and can be applied to certain films, certain choices within paediatrics, as well as many gastronomic choices. It can also be applied to this book, which will improve your knowledge of paediatric gastroenterology, if you like information in quick bullet points.

This review aims to support an earlier text, Pediatric Gastrointestinal Disease: Pathophysiology, 4th edition (by the same authors) which was reviewed in an earlier issue of Archives,¹ but can also function as a stand-alone review, in which light it therefore may be judged. It is designed “to be an indispensable aid to the student preparing for board examinations”, as well as to appeal to a wider paediatric audience.

This review however will benefit its readers in a very specific way. To settle down with this book and a nice cup of tea, aiming to gain a greater general understanding of paediatric gastroenterology topics while in comfortable slippers, is to miss the point of this book. Students or paediatricians should not use this book by opening it at page 1 with a pen and notebook in hand.

For general paediatricians, this book is more of a back-up text, so one’s half-forgotten knowledge of the rarities of paediatric gastroenterology (for example, eosinophilic gastroenteropathy or Zollinger Ellison syndrome) can be rapidly refreshed and expanded in the small gap between the affected patient arriving on the ward and the SHO saying, “So what’s the plan then...”. For specialist registrars or SHOs, this may also provide a useful adjunct in a six month post, without the financial expense or carrying difficulties of weightier tomes. However, the glaring omission in this book is the complete absence of an index. This does hamper problem oriented reading, which for me would be the main use for this book. Both general paediatricians and trainees alike may find this frustrating in their frequent forays for information.

The relevant facts are stripped down in style to bare bullet points, although the regular removal of words such as “and” or “the”, for extra brevity, make the explanations often appear Spartan and occasionally disjointed. However, the included facts are all relevant (if densely packed); there are no obvious omissions and the tables are concise and well laid out. There is a nice balance between common conditions, such as infantile colic (which includes some useful management strategies) and rarer conditions, which often have a succinct overview, without the exhaustive detail that would double the size and weight of this book.

The questions at the end of each section provide a useful addition to the text, helping to reinforce the points made. Some of the questions are beyond the knowledge level required in MRCPCH part I, and are less relevant in style to the other parts of the membership exam. However in the main, the questions are appropriate and would require a thorough knowledge of the relevant topic to be answered well. They would be ideal for a membership student who revises in periods lasting only a few minutes.

So for those that like browsing through paediatric books, or reading them cover-to-cover—look elsewhere. For those that use texts for specific searches, and prefer their books to be inexpensive and easily portable, this is much more useful in providing core knowledge in a concise format. As with Marmite, the only way to know for sure is to take a deep breath and try it yourself.