This second edition of “Fractures of the facial skeleton” is a soft cover book of 166 pages written for postgraduate students, trainees and practitioners dealing with facial trauma in the craniomaxillofacial region. It follows the first edition published in 2001. In 10 chapters dealing with well chosen facial trauma topics an excellent overview of the basics is provided including incidence, aetiology, general principles of treatment, emergency management of facial trauma, clinical features, imaging, treatment of hard and soft tissue injuries, post-operative care and complications. The chapter on the latter topic gives an especially nice and complete list of all complications the clinician may expect and how to treat. All chapters are easy to read and are accompanied by clear clinical pictures, imaging and excellent illustrations. Overall the text is very practical and the writing is to the point. In addition, the chapter on soft tissue injuries and fractures associated with tissue loss contains good examples and is of great value. Unfortunately, the chapter on imaging does not mention intra-operative imaging techniques like navigation. Also, computer-assisted techniques like virtual planning used in the repair of, for example, orbital trauma would be worthwhile for the next edition. But otherwise the information is up to date. The reviewer can only greatly advocate this textbook for everyone interested in and dealing with the management of facial trauma: an absolute must for postgraduate students, young trainees and practitioners who want to have comprehensible and concise information on facial trauma.