Long before Kevin Jennings began advocating to end anti-LGBT bias in schools, he was a victim of it. In Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son, Jennings traces the roots of his activism to his elementary school days in the conservative South, where "faggot" became more familiar to him than his own name. Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son is that rare memoir that is both a riveting personal story and an inside account of a critical chapter in our recent history. Creating safe schools for all youth is now a central part of the progressive agenda in American education—and Kevin Jennings is at the forefront of that fight. Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son earned an A- in Entertainment Weekly, was featured in Salon and The Advocate, and was called "a great read" by People.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This rags-to-riches story, about growing up poor and eventually reaching Harvard has bite and pathos. The youngest son of a born-again Southern Baptist preacher originally from Massachusetts, and a mother from Appalachian Tennessee, Jennings led an itinerant youth among trailer parks in Southern towns where his dad would try to find work. The boy couldn't make his father proud on the football field, and already he had learned that "being a real man meant taking advantage of anyone smaller or weaker than you." With his father's abrupt death when Jennings was eight, he became a "mama's boy," introverted, brainy and overweight, and ridden by guilt at his incipient homosexuality. Supported by his scarcely educated mother, who became the first woman manager at McDonald's, Jennings excelled in school and on the debate team and was accepted to Harvard by 1981. Jennings became a high-school teacher, at Concord Academy among others, agonizing over the decision to out himself; he promoted the creation of GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) to protect students from the kind of harassment he experienced firsthand. When his national crusade brought him back home to speak at the same Winston-Salem school system where his "young soul had almost been crushed," Jennings writes of his journey with graciousness and candor. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
When hospitalized in 1966 with whooping cough--a consequence of his family's extreme poverty, which excluded vaccinations, insurance, and even a doctor until the three-year-old's fever exceeded 102 degrees--Jennings almost died. Buoyed by his Appalachian mother's steel will, he returned to the family's two-bedroom trailer and recovered, but fighting for life left him feeling different and vulnerable, and his mother overprotective. Hence, he became a mama's boy. As for his fundamentalist--preacher dad, he cared only about God and sports, worked construction jobs--and dropped dead at Jennings' eighth-birthday party. He grew up gay with athletic brothers in a sports-mad family ("a white-trash version of the Kennedys") amid a culture that forbade homosexuality. After 12 years "of isolation and sadness" in public schools, he went to Harvard on a scholarship and discovered new freedoms, but he re-closeted himself when he went home to teach. After two years, he left, marched with his partner for gay rights in 1987, and eventually spearheaded efforts to make schools safer for gay kids. A refreshingly readable memoir. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 16 people found the following review helpful
By Lester Brown
Format:Hardcover
Very few books I've read have touched me as deeply as Kevin Jenning's book "Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son." The author does an excellent job hooking the reader in with descriptions of life growing up in the South, with feelings of not being "normal."
From the depths of despair in a childhood gone wrong, Kevin managed to form an idea of how to change the climate in schools, and make them a better place for kids to learn. The things he went through as a student trying to get an education and putting up with bullying and harassment are amazing, and incredibly sad. This book should be required reading for teachers entering the field, so they understand why bullying and harassment isn't just "kids being kids" and can cause significant and lasting damage to the victims.
From the depths of despair in a childhood gone wrong, Kevin managed to form an idea of how to change the climate in schools, and make them a better place for kids to learn. The things he went through as a student trying to get an education and putting up with bullying and harassment are amazing, and incredibly sad. This book should be required reading for teachers entering the field, so they understand why bullying and harassment isn't just "kids being kids" and can cause significant and lasting damage to the victims.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
One might expect the life of a gay son of a Southern minister to be miserable and brief, but this one is truly inspirational, both because of the quality of the son, and of the extraordinary tenacity of his uneducated but street-smart mother. Jennings has a memory for and eye for detail that is astonishing. Anyone who believes that homosexuality is a "lifestyle choice" should be convinced otherwise by this memoir, though some will be troubled by Jennings' brazen attitude during his Harvard years. My experience with teaching at a "private school" paralleled his -- not the place for a liberal-minded person with an independent streak. One has to admire the man Jennings became and appreciate the strength required to get there.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The writer kept me engaged until the very end. Great book, and very interesting life that makes you feel like you could do more with your own.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
My thoughts.
A great book about growing up gay as a preacher's son. This is a must read for anyone growing up gay and trying to figure out how or if the religion of their childhood is still a... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Charles J. Dale
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding Memoir
We decided to read this for our book club. I was not really excited by the title, but the more I read, the closer I felt to the author and his expereiences. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Susan Tournour
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Soulful and Relatable Memoir
Though Jennings has become a very successful and well-known advocate for LGBT equality, he walked a long yet familiar road. Read more
Published on May 21, 2011 by TM Lankford
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enlightening! Beautiful! Encouraging!
I am not gay but I have friends and family who are. This book really helps the reader understand, very clearly, the issues that millions ignore. Read more
Published on December 9, 2010 by Kimberly Lynn Farley
4.0 out of 5 stars
good book, moving
I thought this book was very moving. I couldn't relate to the growing up poor part but I certainly connected to the growing up gay part. Read more
Published on March 17, 2010 by John S. Wilson
4.0 out of 5 stars
LOVE SOMEONE NOT FOR WHAT THEY ,BUT WHO THEY ARE!!! R.T.
WOW!WOW!THIS BOOK IS SOOOO AMAZING. YOU GOT TO READ THIS BOOK. IT ALSO SHOWS THAT EVEN THOUGH WE ARE RAISED ONE WAY HOW ,AND WHEN WE BECOME EDUCATED IN WHY AND WHAT PEOPLE ARE... Read more
Published on September 6, 2008 by ADAMS SEED
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son
This is an awesome book. I laughed a lot and also shed a lot of tears as Kevin's journey and mine are so similar. Both preacher's sons and teachers. Read more
Published on May 11, 2008 by Bernard
4.0 out of 5 stars
The teacher who enters the classroom ready to learn from his or her...
Kevin Jennings grew up as a preacher's son (the son of a Southern Baptist Minister) and a mama's boy (more interested in intellectual pursuits than athletics). Read more
Published on August 20, 2007 by Jessica Lux
2.0 out of 5 stars
okay, I'm the spoiler
As a gay preacher's kid (fundamentalist) from the same geography (rural N.C.), I have to say I found Jenning's story to be irritatingly self-indulgent. Read more
Published on August 16, 2007 by G. Rowe
5.0 out of 5 stars
had me laughing and crying
I had never heard of Kevin Jennings before reading *Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son*. I got this book as a gift for my partner as he is from North Carolina. Read more
Published on June 12, 2007 by LARRY
