Fr. Deiss is, I'll admit, an author to whom I am very partial; this book is another example of why. Fr. Deiss is a cautious scholar, careful to distinguish between reasonable assumptions and facts. He wears his scholarship lightly - the book is very readable. The strength of the book, however, is that one can read a reasonable "childhood biography" of Jesus without constantly sorting out the author's bias. Especially useful are his depictions of Joseph and Mary - a depiction less "poverty bound" than some of the scholars who build a more "politizing" background for Jesus.