“Richard J. Gelles was once one of the most widely published and vocal defenders of family preservation–keeping troubled families together–as a primary goal of social policy. But everything changed when he ran into the tragic case of David Edwards, an infant who was murdered by his mother after falling through the chasms in the child welfare system.. David’s story convinced Gilles–and will convince any reader of “The Book of David”—that our child welfare system is fundamentally flawed and must be changed.”