Customer Reviews

American Medical Association Boy's Guide to Becoming a Teen

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this book as part of a three book set, including "The Teenage Guy's Survival Guide" by Daldry and "The Guy Book, An Owner's Manual" by Jukes, to explain growing up to my son (see my other reviews).

This book is by far the lower level book of those three. It appears to be at about a 4th - 5th grade reading level, and is printed in a larger font, making it an easy read for even a younger or reading disabled pre-teen boy.
The illustrations are numerous and cartoonish, and should make it more attractive to younger readers.

This book is very basic, and is geared more towards a basic understanding of what is happening to the boy's body. It includes short, easy to read sections on physical changes (both sexual and general body growth and development, with good illustrations of growing male anatomy, with genital self-exams and health concerns explained very well, this may be the ONLY puberty book for boys that does that!), physical health, diet, mental health (depression, changing emotions, coping with death of a loved one, and parental divorce), feelings, social changes, and, at the last chapter, sex. The sex chapter delves into the areas of changing feelings towards girls, crushes, dating, peer pressure (including bullying and pressure to have sex), and STDs (very brief, very vague). It also has a special two page section on sexual harrassment and what's OK and NOT OK. Very cool! This book has two VERY SHORT paragraphs on "having a crush on another boy", but doesn't explain it at all, except to say that it can be complicated to figure out who you are attracted to, and that these feelings may change many times throughout your life. It advocates discussing these feelings with an adult, and gives no references to hotlines or resources. I think I can safely say it glazes over the topic and makes it go away. Which is probably good for very young pre-teens that are not ready to experiment that way yet (or for children being raised by parents who don't support it).

This book has an excellent terminology dictionary in the back!

This book appears to have been written much like anyone would expect a medical reference book for pre-teens to have been written, and functions much like one would assume a "health class" in school would. It is very wide in it's scope, but not detailed in anything. It promotes health and healthy choices. It reads like a reference book, which may be good or not, depending on the boy and how he was raised. The lack of commentary and story-telling may bring a sense of comfort to boys not ready to delve into these topics comfortably on a casual level.

I highly recommend it as the very first book to introduce puberty to young pre-teen boys (say ages 10 or 11) or older boys with learning disabilities or ADD as it is easy to read and not overwhelming (I say this from experience as my son has both). A great first book on the topic!

I also think this would be a good book for young girls who are curious about puberty in boys, as it shows male anatomy in a non-threatening way, and most of the health and social topics are also fitting for a girl of the same age, and would show a girl that boys face many of the same social challeneges they also face, but from the boy's perspective.

I purchased this book for my twin 10-year-old son's (who will be starting 5th grade in August) to read. They had started to ask me questions about different things they had heard at school from their friends, etc., and I decided to look for books they could read that would give them some correct, age appropriate information.
This book is a great. It describes a variety of physical changes to boy's bodies, the importance of personal hygiene, as well as how a boys voice will begin to change and why. It discusses changes in boys' feelings, hormones (and describes what they are), and it also touches a little bit on girls/dating at the end.
It is not graphic, does not discuss sex; it is age appropriate and well written.
It is also a great "conversation starter" for Mom's like me who have no brothers and did not grow up around boys!

After going through several books with this topic, I found one that discusses the issues important to a pre-teen without being graphic, immoral and too informative.
It tells what needs to be known without all the details. As his parent, I can decide which details he should know and how to explain them to him. This is a book that he can read alone and I feel comfortable with giving him that privacy. The book is very easy to read. It addresses the topics of concern to boys starting puberty. Yes, it goes over body changes and disspells myths. It briefly discusses sex. But, it isn't a "how to" book. I really like that it also pays a lot of attention to how boys/teens feel in social settings, their body images, peer pressure, substance abuse and emotions. These topics are just as important to a pre-teen than knowing all there is to know about sex.
I felt completely at ease handing this book over to my son and then discussing sections with him.

I bought this book for my 10 year old. I was very pleased with the way it explained things. I read the book to him and answered any questions that he had as we went along. He did not have very many, because it was explained very well. However, there is a part in the book I did not read to him, which is the reason why I did not let him read the book by himself. The part touches on sex, which I don't have a problem with except for the fact that it explained oral and anal sex, and I don't feel like a 10 year old should know about things like that.

I purchased on the recommendation of our school nurse for my 5th Grader. I read it first and was pleasantly surprised. Deffinitely not a "how to" manual. Clear, concise, kid friendly language.

We were looking for a book for our son similar to The Care & Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls (American Girl Library) that we bought for our daughter, and this book seems to be one of the best. We bought 2, one for our son and one for a realtive, but when we received it, we found that there are materials on some pages that are objectionable or against our regligion. We returned one copy and kept one.

Overall the book is a good reference except the masturbate part. It implies that it is not normal to not masturbate, and the only negative to masturbating a lot is not having time for other things. Medical materials note that masturbating a lot can negatively affect the bowel movement and other organs in the body, too.

The book also talk about oral and anal sex, which might not be appropriate to your early teens. We plan to guide our son through these objectionable pages.

I purchased "The Care and Keeping of You" for my daughter and had hoped this would be similar in nature and taste. It covered most subjects well, but the last chapter dealing with sex went WAY over the top. I do not see the point in detailing the three kinds of sex "intercourse, anal and oral" for an adolescent boy. Talk about freaking a kid out. I'm all about giving information, but when it's appropriate. If they are just reading this book and learning about armpit hair, zits and bullying, anal sex is a bit over the top. Be forewarned that this puts ALL the cards on the table. I stapled the last chapter together and told my son (who's 11) we'd talk about it when we were both ready.

I bought this book for my son. I have read the entire thing cover to cover and have decided that he is only ready for some of the material at this point. He will be allowed to read the whole thing in a year or two. This book gives great info on health and hygiene as well as changes in the body during puberty. There are comments about becoming sexually active that I am not comfortable with at this point but I think that may just be because I don't think my son is old enough for the details.I do recommend this book but encourage parents to read it and decide for themselves if their son(s) should read the whole thing or not.

This book should go along with active parental guidance. It does provide an overview and answers to some questions but not comprehensive. Some terms are mentioned but never explained. Some information such as oral and anal sex seems over the top for a book geared towards pre teens. What really bothered me was the misinformation on circumcision. The book centers on the circumcised penis as being normal, provides incorrect information about foreskin function, washing and phimosis and uses the term "uncircumcised". The book needs to be updated to meet the needs of the current generation which has much lower circumcision rates.

I bought this for a gift for a boy about to turn 13. I looked it over before actually giving it and was impressed. It was a good mix of information presented -- not just the biology of what is happening but also emotional and social changes. There were even sections about dealing with bullies and how your friendships may change as you grow. The wording was matter of fact, but casual enough to appeal to a tween. I liked the message that waiting to have sex was the best choice, and the book substantiated this message with the reasons why. I think when the time comes for my own children to start reading up on these topics I'd like to supplement this with something that goes into more detail about the biology -- but this is a great overview.