Book Review: The end of family court: How abolishing the court brings justice to children and families by Spinak, J. M. SpinakJ. M. (2023). The end of family court: How abolishing the court brings justice to children and families. New York: New York University Press. 1–369 pp. $35.00 (hardcover), $30.99 (paperback),ISBN 978-1479814084.

The End of Family Court is a refreshing deep dive into the futility of our juvenile courts and a roadmap towards something completely different.As a practitioner who has worked in Court Administration for ten years, this book was incredibly validating as I watched my court's mindless march towards additional programming and expansion; as such, this book should not just be read by academics, but should be read by judges, policy makers, and child advocates-it is clear from this work that communities and states are indeed struggling with the desire to help children and families but are not using the appropriate tools to do so.In ten chapters, Spinak reviews the formation of the first juvenile and children's courts in the United States, paying particular attention to what the founders were hoping to achieve with these courts, which was to help and "save" children.These historical reviews are careful to take into account the many pitfalls that the founders encountered, including the criminalization of poor Black children, of youth in general, and in the consistent tension that allowed the courts to have increasing amounts of jurisdiction over family matters and intervene in the personal lives of youth and children.The author then reviews what the current landscape of the Family Court looks like, and outlines the continued push for judges to do more to intervene in family life and to act as a surrogate parent to wayward youth.Spinak's argument that the Family Court must be abolished entirely comes into focus within these chapters as the author points out the disconnect between the thought experiment that is the Family Court, with a benevolent and wise judge at the helm, and the courts as they are in practice-imperfect, sometimes incredibly harmful, inefficient, and incapable of solving the problems that it has set forth to solve.The book ends with a refreshing look at abolition, taking readers through a process of shrinking the courts with the ultimate goal of abolition.This work offers many wonderful insights and it is clear that the author occupies both practitioner and academic as she constructs her arguments; Jane Spinak's experience both as a law professor and as a representative of children going through Family Court makes this work all the