To Raise a Boy: Classrooms, Locker Rooms, Bedrooms, and the Hidden Struggles of American Boyhood

“How will we raise our boys to be different?” asks journalist Brown in her deeply insightful take on how to give boys “what they need to build healthy relationships with themselves, with other boys and men, and with girls and women.” In surveying how American boys are raised, Brown addresses sexual violence against them, which is often dismissed as bullying or hazing, and highlights the damage done by selling boys short as “violent, dirty, impolite, unfeeling, disengaged,” while at the same time failing to afford them space to fail or seek help. Brown suggests that giving boys “space for conversations about masculinity, sex, consent, and porn” will help them deal properly with peer pressure, and calls on parents and teachers to offer nuanced guidance on consent, as “boys must hear the clear message that girls can like sex, too, and that a person—a girl or a boy—should be believed the first time they say no.” The best path forward, Brown writes, is offering boys a broadened and positive model of masculinity: “One way parents can give their kids a willingness to buck gender norms is by bucking those norms themselves.” Readers will leave this book inspired by Brown’s vision. Agent: Bridget Matzie, Aevitas Creative Management. (Mar.)