What parents will not find there, however, are answers to the most basic questions: Which boosters are best? Which are good enough?
In the absence of government crash standards or even an industry seal of approval, no one knows - even though boosters already are required by 14 other states, including New Jersey and Delaware, and bills are pending in 24 more.
"Standards take time; they're not just something you whip together," said Jennifer Szwalek, spokeswoman for the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association in Mount Laurel, which certifies the safety of such kid gear as cribs, high chairs and strollers. Lab-testing of boosters by the group, she said, hasn't "made it to the table."
Washington is only now getting around to giving boosters the once-over. Congress has ordered the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to study the seats and write crash standards for manufacturers for children 50 pounds and heavier. The agency has yet to announce a timetable.
If officialdom has been caught off-guard by the booster boom - well, who hasn't? Just a few years ago, the market consisted mostly of hyper-conscientious parents, the same ones who put their children in helmets to go sledding.
Even without legislative fiat, Michelle Francl has had her sons, ages 6 and 8, in boosters ever since they outgrew their toddler seats because, she said, "I could see that the adult seat belt didn't fit."
Her older son could legally graduate to an adult seat. But Francl, a Bryn Mawr College chemistry professor, intends to keep him in a booster until he weighs 80 pounds.
"We are geeks," she said. "And in the end, the geeks win."
At the very least, they don't get fined.
