This book is about the current thinking about how stars and planets form. It a compilation of review articles by theorists and obervational astronomers, about the latest advances made in their fields. Each article almost stands by itself and can be read separately. The book is thorough and lucid enough to bring beginners up to speed. This is a science which is still quite young, and the book puts forward a huge number of questions. The beginning researcher will find lots of easy points of entry into the field, but at the same time find that very little is known very precisely.