Little Roger, an eleven-year-old boy growing up in northern Maine near the Canadian border, must write a history paper about his small town of Frenchville. As his mother is telling him about growing up in nearby New Brunswick, Canada, she tells him that "Where I'm from, a boy is not a man until he kills a deer." At that point Little Roger sets a new goal for himself, not only does he want to get an A on his history paper about Frenchville but now he also wants to kill a deer and become a man! He knows what he must do but it is something very new to him and he must find a way to reconcile the task with the outcome. With only a couple of days left in the hunting season, will Little Roger kill a deer and become a man?

The idea for the book came about while I was working abroad on a theater show, with a fair bit of downtime. Before leaving, I'd been helping our son, Arlen, as he made first contact with a few instruments: keyboards and synthesizers, guitar, and a variety of tuned percussion instruments. It did not always go well. His intense love of music was matched by an equally intense desire for immediate results. This combination often led to a considerable amount of frustration. To help Arlen cope with this frustration, I decided to write a short rhyming story that would be similar in many ways to those found in his favorite picture books. My initial vision was for the book to encourage practice and sticktoitiveness, enshrining the many virtues of delayed gratification. Mercifully, I came to my senses and abandoned that idea as utter nonsense. It dawned on me that our boy's innocence and earnestness fueled a kind of rock power, that unnamed spark of creative joy that many of us in the music industry have chased in practice spaces and recording studios for decades. It's the very thing that makes a kid, a kid. Our five-year-old boy is Thoreau's "childlike mirthfulness" come to life. He dances like there's no one watching; he doesn't know any other way. He sings with abandon, and sometimes, he roars. In the end, I thought that if he learns something from the book, wonderful, but above all else, I wanted this book to help ensure that he never forgets how to roar.

When life is funny, make some jokes about it. Billy Plimpton has a big dream: to become a famous comedian when he grows up. He already knows a lot of jokes, but thinks he has one big problem standing in his way: his stutter. At first, Billy thinks the best way to deal with this is to . . . never say a word. That way, the kids in his new school won’t hear him stammer. But soon he finds out this is NOT the best way to deal with things. (For one thing, it’s very hard to tell a joke without getting a word out.) As Billy makes his way toward the spotlight, a lot of funny things (and some less funny things) happen to him. In the end, the whole school will know -- If you think you can hold Billy Plimpton back, be warned: The joke will soon be on you!

RULES FOR BEING A MAN Don't Cry; Love Sport; Play Rough; Drink Beer; Don't Talk About Feelings But Robert Webb has been wondering for some time now: are those rules actually any use? To anyone? Looking back over his life, from schoolboy crushes (on girls and boys) to discovering the power of making people laugh (in the Cambridge Footlights with David Mitchell), and from losing his beloved mother to becoming a husband and father, Robert Webb considers the absurd expectations boys and men have thrust upon them at every stage of life. Hilarious and heartbreaking, How Not To Be a Boy explores the relationships that made Robert who he is as a man, the lessons we learn as sons and daughters, and the understanding that sometimes you aren't the Luke Skywalker of your life - you're actually Darth Vader.

A book from the front lines of modern fatherhood. Welcome to Rob Sturrock's journey into parenting. Since the birth of his daughter, Rob has been passionate about being an active and present father, but this hasn't always been straightforward. Struggling with stereotypes, judgement, identity and isolation while on parental leave, Rob has tried to balance supporting his wife and young children with the societal expectation of being a breadwinner for his family. With the arrival of his son, a new set of anxieties was born. In today's climate, how do you raise a boy? The roar of the #MeToo movement has meant that men have had to learn to listen, and to confront their masculinity and what it means to be a man. Through extensive research and interviews with dads doing it differently - including Tony Sheldon, Adam Liaw and Bernie Shakeshaft - Rob Sturrock explores a new era of fathering that balances strength and vulnerability, allowing men to voice their insecurities and uncertainties, and encouraging them to truly cherish their families. Man Raises Boy is at once an insightful and necessary call to arms for all new fathers, a guiding hand in the maze of love, guilt, anxiety and joy in fatherhood - and an ordinary dad's beautifully moving love letter to his son. 'Raw, inspiring and brutally honest. If you have a son, read this book.' Madonna King, bestselling author of Fathers and Daughters

At a time when many boys are in crisis, a much-needed roadmap for helping boys grow into strong and compassionate men Over the past two decades there has been an explosion of new studies that have expanded our knowledge of how boys think and feel. In How to Raise a Boy, psychologist Michael Reichert draws on his decades of research to challenge age-old conventions about how boys become men. Reichert explains how the paradigms about boys needing to be stoic and "man like" can actually cause them to shut down, leading to anger, isolation, and disrespectful or even destructive behaviors. The key to changing the culture lies in how parents, educators, and mentors help boys develop socially and emotionally. Reichert offers readers step-by-step guidance in doing just this by: Listening and observing, without judgment, so that boys know they're being heard. Helping them develop strong connections with teachers, coaches, and other role models Encouraging them to talk about their feelings about the opposite sex and stressing the importance of respecting women Letting them know that they don't have to "be a man" or "suck it up," when they are experiencing physical or emotional pain. Featuring the latest insights from psychology and neuroscience, How to Raise a Boy will help those who care for young boys and teenagers build a boyhood that will enable them to grow into confident, accomplished and kind men.

A record of one man's journey to find his "true masculinity" and his way out of co-dependent and addictive relationships. It's a book for all men and women who grew up in dysfunctional families and are now ready for some fresh insights into their past and their pain. It's a story about feelings - losing them, finding them and finally expressing them. Here you will find people you know; will discover a way out of the pain and see that it really is OK to express yourself without fear. The book is about grieving, a very misunderstood process often confused with self-pity. Open the doors to understanding - men will understand themselves and each other, and women will more deeply understand men, learn how to be with wounded men and still take care of themselves.

In 1981, Heinrich Boll returned to the streets of his childhood in this remarkable collection of nonfiction. This volume captures the musings of a mature Boll as he looks back with fondness and with anger on his formative years: as a student who avoided school but lived for his education on the street; and as a young man forced to grapple with the moral horror that was Hitler. What's to Become of the Boy - superbly translated by Leila Vennewitz - provides uncommon insight into Boll's maturation as an author and as a man.

We live in a time when manhood and masculinity are under attack. Boys are seen as defective because they are so active and need to stay busy with their hands, and they often don't do well in a public school setting where they are expected to sit still all day. But masculinity is good and the world needs it now more than ever. God made boys to build, provide, protect, fight, lead, worship, and proclaim. In this book, your sons will discover these 7 reasons that make it good to be a boy.