All in a Day's Work is a memoir written by British social worker Becky Hope about her experiences over 20 years working in child protection in Britain.
Hope is a pseudonym used to protect the children she has come across. And boy, do they need protecting.
The book charts the plight of children who don't cry because they know no one will respond, and others who sleep under urine-soaked blankets and scavenge for food in bins.
'Rearing children is a full-on responsibility and society fails to recognise this at its peril,' writes Hope. The book is full of case studies that prove that society (British society, at least) is failing in this duty.
One such child is Martin, who was thrown out of home at the age of 10 by his heroin-addicted, prostitute mother. Now in his teens, he is prone to violent outbursts and, as a result, is moved from one children's home to another. Heartbreakingly, Martin is always worrying about his mother, who couldn't care less about him. He carries bread in his pocket for comfort because he's so used to going hungry.
Not all the stories are doom and gloom. There is a flicker of hope in the tale of Rosie, a woman in her late 20s, who was removed from home at an early age along with her twin brother and two sisters. Rosie's 'level of neglect ... matched up with the worst', and yet she has turned her life around completely and is happily married with a young son.