“Raising Confident Boys”, by Elizabeth Hartley-Brewer

Hartley-Brewer, Elizabeth. Raising Confident Boys: 100 Tips for Parents and Teachers. Cambridge, MA: Fisher, 2001. Print.

I liked how this books was arranged, with two-page spreads for each of 100 tips.  They were arranged into logical blocks in the chapters, with an introductory explanation for each chapter.  The second page for each tip was divided into two columns, with one for specific ideas for parents and the other for teachers.  Of course some nuances suffer when you force each tip to fit into exactly two pages, but in general it gave good digestible chunks that could be easily read and thought about on the subway.  I made many little notes picking out quotes I liked (e.g. “claiming they know it already or have no need to know are self-protection strategies”.)

There wasn’t really anything in here that I didn’t know already, but a lot of it was perfect reading material for the time I picked up the book, when I was over-stressed by boys at school and boys at home.  This book gave me perspective and little things I could change immediately, which both repaired my confidence and helped ease my day-to-day burden.  I would recommend it for any parent who is worried about their boy(s), although I think I found it less helpful as a teacher.