Boyology: A Teen Girl's Crash Course in All Things Boy [Paperback]

Keri Smith (Author), Sarah O'Leary Burningham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2009

A crash course in understanding boys, Boyology delves into the many mysteries of teen guys, dissecting flirting tactics, offering dating suggestions, and providing tips on forming solid friendships. It's an up-close-and-personal look at boys in their natural habitats, with analyses by teen girlsand insight from the boys.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sarah O'Leary Burningham is the author of How to Raise Your Parents. Still a teenager at heart, she lives in Manhattan.

Keri Smith is the author and illustrator of several books including the Guerilla Art Kit, Living Out Loud, Tear Up This Book, Story in a Box -- Cinderella, and Princess and the Pea. She lives in Troy, NY.

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books; 1 edition (April 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811864367
• ISBN-13: 978-0811864367
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #261,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, April 10, 2009

By 

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boyology: A Teen Girl's Crash Course in All Things Boy (Paperback)

Just like the title says, BOYOLOGY is a "crash course," although it's more of a crash course in dating, rather than boys in general. For instance, if you want to know what a "safety" is in football so you can have a conversation with your brother on a Sunday afternoon, then this book is not what you're looking for. However, if you want to figure out whether your brother's friend is flirting with you while you're all watching Sunday afternoon football, then this is the book for you.

Before we go any further, I must offer a clarification: Where I'm from, teenage males are not referred to as "boys." They are "guys." For me, the word "boy" conjures up images of dimpled 5-year-olds with gaps where their front teeth should be. The only people around here who call teenagers "boys" are school principals. This is doubtless just a regional difference, so if you're from Chicago like I am, just mentally substitute the word "guy" for "boy" when you're reading BOYOLOGY (i.e. GUYOLOGY). Please don't let that little objection turn you off from this book, because it has a lot of good advice to offer about boys or guys or whatever you call them.

BOYOLOGY contains a great deal of useful information for teenage girls who are trying to find their way around the confusing world of crushes and dating. While much of the advice might be things you have heard before in one form or another, it's nice to have it reinforced by a neutral third-party (i.e. someone who's not your mom or your minister). For instance, the book tells girls to be themselves and establish their physical boundaries before things get hot and heavy. There are also plenty of things that you probably haven't heard before, including fun date ideas for couples or groups, step-by-step instructions on how to kiss, and a quiz to see if you're a good date or not.

The book is optimistic, by which I mean that it spends relatively little time on the "What if he's not into you?" scenarios, and many more pages on successful flirting, dating, and becoming a couple. The author balances her approach by offering not only the fun side of dating, but also worthwhile safety information. She points out the importance of letting your parents know if you're "seeing" someone online, as well as how to avoid and, if necessary, deal with sexual assault. I recommend her tip on taking a minute to program a taxi service phone number into your cell phone so you can always get home safely. The book even has a chapter at the end about breaking up. You might never need tips on maintaining your dignity when running into the ex and his new girlfriend, but when you do need them, they're worth their weight in gold.

The book doesn't just offer the author's perspective. It has words of wisdom from celebrities, like Daniel Radcliffe and Zac Efron, and it provides advice from actual teenagers (lots of them boys/guys) who have "been there, done that." Even the author's husband (who used to be a boy/guy) chimes in from time to time.

About the only problem I ran across in BOYOLOGY is the same problem that other books like this can't really avoid. Books that rely on current culture become outdated quickly. There is so much time between when a book is written and when it's finally released, that there's no way for authors to be up-to-date on fads and popular expressions. For instance, this book discusses texting, but there's no mention of Twitter. It mentions MySpace, but not Facebook. In fact, this review itself will be outdated in a few months because Twitter and Facebook will probably have been replaced by something new. Other than that minor complaint, this is an interesting and useful book for teenage girls. The advice is pretty timeless and the celebrity quotes are an interesting addition.

So my advice is: Pick up a copy, have fun, and good luck out there!

Reviewed by: K. Osborn Sullivan

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars terrific guide for young girls, November 4, 2009

By 

audrey (white mtns) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Boyology: A Teen Girl's Crash Course in All Things Boy (Paperback)

(What's this?)

As an experienced wife and mother, I was interested to see what advice a current author would be offering America's youth. Had things changed since I'd read Seventeen (and Vampirella)? Human nature being what it, by definition, is -- no, things haven't changed much. Boys and girls are *both* clueless about each other .... but they are oh so interested!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the other reviews of this book. Many are thrilled with the book's friendly, sound advice and have received good feedback about it from girls, but a few are concerned that the advice is not cautious enough, or even that it encourages behavior that a girl may not be ready for. For those few I would say: definitely don't give this book to any girl who isn't ready for these issues. I'd also make the point that at some point all kids will become twitterpated. That, too, is human nature. And I'd say this book is a fine, readable conversation starter for parents and kids, or a pajama party giggle book. It's just the kind of stuff that fuels a thousand huddled discussions and notes and surveys and tweets. It's what girls want to talk about and, as an ex-girl, I thought the advice was sound, presented in a friendly way, and more appealing for its being peppered with celebrity quotes and anecdotes from the author and her acquaintances. Much more wholesome than some of the teen magazine articles I remember, too!

Chapter 1, B-O-Y Basics, sets the tone and offers up some universal advice such as: boys don't like shopping, they "don't notice all the flaws you see in yourself", and are just as puzzled as you. Some of the advice throughout the book focuses on girls -- who you are and what you want in a guy; other advice looks more intently at the guys themselves -- what "breed" they are, so to speak, as discussed in the second chapter. I didn't think this was offensive, offering eight types that a television producer would recognize -- tortured artist, hip-hopper, tech-tilian, for example, with each described by a celebrity look-alike, his future career, favorite movie, etc. Girls love this stuff!

Chapter 3 advises girls on how to act around guys. I wish I'd had a book like this! I think tween girls will find this very useful.

Chapter 4 discusses dating: first dates, mix tapes, places to go (baking at home, volunteering, dinner & a movie, bowling -- all fine ideas), paying, kissing, things that can go wrong, group dates, e-friends. (Yes, the author says that after a few months of emailing, it might be time to talk on the phone. That sets every parent's hair ahackle, but denying the temptation to a girl won't make it go away. The author also says that the girl should get the guy's number, not give out her own, that her parents should be in on this relationship from the beginning, and that a parent should accompany her to a first meeting in a public place. I think that all makes sense.)

Chapter 5, on love and relationships, talks about having a good relationship with a boyfriend, and offers affirmational tips on being yourself. The next chapter, Setting Your Boundaries, refers vaguely to "hooking up" but does not offer specifics, and does discuss assault and rape. This book does not discuss explicit acts, birth control or STDs, which makes it less valuable as a guide for young women, but it contains adequate material, one hopes, for teenage girls.

Chapter 7 is about the other people in your life, the ones that aren't boys -- friends, parents, etc. Chapter 8, Boy Friend Vs. Boyfriend, does a good job of helping tell the difference, and the last two chapters, on breaking up and dealing with an ex-boyfriend, treat emotional issues with respect and even offer a couple of getting-over-him formulae, a nice way to look beyond one's despair.

As others have mentioned, the book can't keep up with our breakneck technology, but the principles can be applied to whatever's on the horizon. This is a friendly discussion starter for girls, families and even boys. I deem the advice to be decent and sound, appropriate for tweens and young teens.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Boyology is Smart & Funny Book Coving Questions Girls in their Early Teens will have about boy, December 7, 2009

By 

Pam Tee "Busy Mom" - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Boyology: A Teen Girl's Crash Course in All Things Boy (Paperback)

(What's this?)

"Boyology" is smart and funny book that deals with most of the early questions girls in their early teen years will have about boys. And given that, I probably ought to explain that I'm an old married lady, and that I requested "Boyology" from Amazon's Vine Early Reviewer program because I have a 9 y.o. daughter and I am already freaking out, even at this early date, about the whole dating scene. So that's why I read it, and that what drives my perspective in this review.

Now as for my take, I thought Sarah Burningham did a fantastic job keeping the tone light, while at the same time providing savvy advice. Part of the way she did that was to include quotes from both boy and girl teens, as well as her husband. That way the perspective wasn't just from girls and women, but guys too.

I'll give you a list of Chapter headings shortly, but let me tell you about some of the topics Sarah Covers. First off she covers some basics, like the fact that most boys don't want people to disrepect their friends, and that it's in their nature not to see the defects in you that you see yourself. She then goes on to do something I don't particular like, and that is to put boys in categories, like "The Hip-Hopper" or the "The Tech-tilian". But despite that fact, I can't really complain, because this approach leads ultimately to the book's suggesting that girls date a variety of boys, the process of elimination, and then try to figure out what traits they ultimately want in a man... way down the line.

After that, there's quite a bit of talk about the art of flirting. Sarah goes into discussing dating, types of dates, date suggestions, and ultimately styles of kissing. From there, there is talk about melding the boy into your life: with your friends, your parents, his parents, etc.

Finally, there's sections about breaking up, recovery, and what to do with abusive situations, and potentially dangerous situations.

Chapters Covered

B-O-Y Basics
What Breed is Your Boyfriend
I You: When You're Head-Over-Heels in Like
The Firsts of First Dates: And the Rest of the Dating Game
The Heart of the Matter: Love and Relationships
You Wear the Pants: Setting Your Boundaries
Outside Forces: Friends, Parents and Other FActors
Boy Friend vs. Boyfriend
Breaking Up is Hard to Do
Getting Back in the Game

Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Credits
Index

Talking Points:::
"Boyology" takes a smart but calculatingly light approach to the subject of relationships. The author covers a wide variety of topics; everything from flirting to drawing boundaries, to breaking up.

I liked that Sarah worked hard to differentiate the fact that at that age boys have a decidedly different perspective on relationships than girls. I also like that her basic approach was 'conservative'. (They get enough of the other sort of message from the media.)

Because the book did not delve into the topic of 'advanced physical relationships' in any detail, I would have to say that the target audience is primarily middle school aged children; though certainly there is something for older teens to learn as well.

I thought the section about setting boundaries was particularly useful, as was the intelligent conversation about how it is abnormal for a boy or man to try to dominate you. Particularly brilliant was her approach to younger girls being asked out by older guys. In fact, I don't believe I've ever heard a more appropriate and clever analogy.

The format was lively, with drawings, tests, and conversation boxes.

Overall, a very good book for the right audience. Recommend this one for mom's and dad's as a conversation starter.

Pam T~
mom and review at my blog
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