This five-volume online encyclopedia, replicated from the print version, is accessible through ABC-CLIO’s e-books interface and consists of 1. Health Basics, 2. Nutrition and Physical Fitness, 3. Sexual Health and Development, 4. Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs, and 5. Mental and Emotional Health. The left-hand frame offers a hyperlinked list to each section within each volume. The centered frame, or “reading pane,” displays all text in particular sections, requiring users to scroll to see all the material.

This encyclopedia is designed to provide high school students with factual, authoritative information. Best practices are described and are supplemented by evidence-based advice from health professionals.

The reference is well researched and organized. Each chapter has a list of resources and a glossary. Many Internet resources are hyperlinked to their homepages. Glossary words in the text appear in boldface, but they are not hyperlinked to the glossary. Hyperlinked cross referencing is used sparingly in the glossary sections. The master index entries list the print volume and page numbers for each subject and are hyperlinked to bring users to that section and text page in the online version. Subjects in the text are highlighted in yellow. There are two appendixes. Appendix 1 is a mapping that ties National Health Education Standards to the encyclopedia content. Appendix 2 is a master list of resources consulted. Unfortunately, the homepage is mainly text-based, which may put off teenagers, especially those with visual learning styles.

Navigation is relatively easy, although some students might have difficulty at first. At the top on the left side is a “Quick Search” box and a drop-down menu for searching within the title, using an author or keyword, or to search across titles. On the left side are green tabs called “About The Book” and “My Bookmarks & Notes.” The first supplies bibliographic information and the second enables students to take, organize, and access notes virtually.

Green tabs at the top are “Home,” “My Bookshelf,” “Help,” and “About.” “My Bookshelf” permits the creation of virtual libraries with quick access to ABC-CLIO references. Librarians and other education professionals should encourage students to explore the “Help” area before using this tool; so they can take advantage of its features. The “Help” area gives succinct information about reading, researching, and navigating. Other options are print, email, cite, dictionary, persistent link option, enlargement of the font sizes, and a page turner. The print and cite features permit citations to be generated in standard styles, and the cite feature permits content to be exported to the online citation organizational tools RefWorks and EasyBib.

This resource will attract many teenagers, because it presents reliable information about reproductive and sexual topics, such as HIV and AIDs, pregnancy, and relationships, about which they often want information. The encyclopedia commendably deals with subjects that other resources might omit or censor. Several contributors are clinical psychologists, who offer comprehensive coverage of issues affecting teens’ mental health, such as bullying, cyber-bullying, and social networking relationships.

The set encourages critical thinking by allowing youngsters to draw their own conclusions. For example, the section entitled “What People Are Saying Teen Opinions” offers answers incorporating multiple perspectives to controversial questions, such as “What are some of the challenges of being a teen parent and trying to finish high school?”

In addition to answering personal questions that high school students may ask, this reference is designed to support high school instruction and curricula, making it suitable for report writing. Therefore, this resource is recommended for all secondary school digital collections.