Our Boys Speak
Adolescent Boys Write About Their Inner Lives
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
John Nikkah asked one simple question: What do the boys think? From the best-selling Ophelia Speaks to the "girl power" movement, teenage girls are speaking their minds and having their due. But what about the boys? Aside from the works of a few academics, there seems to be no outlet in today's media for the true voices of teen-age boys. Until now.
John contacted over 5,000 schools across the country looking for the voices of America's boys. What are their goals, their fears, their hopes, their dreams? What are their lives really like as they stand on the verge of manhood? Our Boys Speak takes the best of hundreds of entries from boys aged 12-18 from varied racial, economic, religious, and regional backgrounds. The essays, poems, diary entries and stories cover topics ranging from sex and dating, sports, religion, depression, violence, video games, family, and just about everything in between. And narrating the essays is John Nikkah, who comes to new understandings about his own teenage years through the raw voices he encounters. This is a book for parents, for teens, for educators and for the heart.
Our Boys Speak is just that. It is our sons, our friends, our neighbors, our families, ourselves. Sometimes painful, sometimes joyful, Our Boys Speak is most of all truthful and real.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Just eight years out of high school, clinical psychology graduate student Nikkah knew from personal experience the falsehood of the clich that young boys who do not willingly talk about themselves have very little going on in their minds and their lives. So he contacted 5000 schools across the country, asking boys to write down their thoughts and experiences, in poems, stories or autobiographical essays. He presents the results of his search in thematic chapters: "Sharing a Room" deals with siblings; "School Ties" concerns peer pressure and cliques; "Song of Sorrow" addresses depression; and "Toy Soldiers" looks at school violence. Nikkah opens each chapter with an essay in which he compares his own experiences to those of the young men who sent him their writings. Intriguingly, his subjects' pieces display both a silent adolescent maturity and the sort of vulnerability that can lurk beneath manly bravado. Felix Flores bares his grief at losing a friend; Chris Chambers-Jupo recalls hearing his best male friend admit that he'd been raped eight years earlier. Boys looking for a perfect romantic love confess to the heartbreak of being "dumped." And many contributors admit that they require a good cry from time to time. On display are boys who pay attention to and learn from their experiences. Not a how-to guide for raising adolescent boys, this is instead an extremely revealing look at the mind and matter of young men.
