Our Boys


Book Description

An inspiring portrait of the extraordinary high-school football team whose quest for perfection sustains its hometown in the heartland The football team in Smith Center, Kansas, has won sixty-seven games in a row, the nation's longest high-school winning streak. They have done so by embracing a philosophy of life taught by their legendary coach, Roger Barta: "Respect each other, then learn to love each other and together we are champions." But as they embarked on a quest for a fifth consecutive title in the fall of 2008, they faced a potentially destabilizing transition: the greatest senior class in school history had graduated, and Barta was contemplating retirement after three decades on the sidelines. In Smith Center--population: 1,931--this changing of the guard was seismic. Hours removed from the nearest city, the town revolves around "our boys" in a way that goes to the heart of what America's heartland is today. Joe Drape, a Kansas City native and an award-winning sportswriter for The New York Times, moved his family to Smith Center to discover what makes the team and the town an inspiration even to those who live hundreds of miles away. His stories of the coaches, players, and parents reveal a community fighting to hold on to a way of life that is rich in value, even as its economic fortunes decline. Drape's moving portrait of Coach Barta and the impressive young men of Smith Center is sure to take its place among the more memorable American sports stories of recent years.




The Boys Return


Book Description

It’s spring break and the only assignment Wally Hatford and Caroline Malloy have is to do something that they have never done before. Wally’s sure that will be a cinch once he hears the great news about the mighty Benson brothers coming to stay for vacation. It will be nonstop action all the way. For starters, the nine Benson and Hatford boys plan on scaring the three Malloy sisters silly by convincing them that their house is haunted. Of course, the boys don’t know that the girls are hard at work plotting their own special surprise welcome. The Bensons don’t know what they’re up against with the Malloy girls. But they soon will. Meanwhile, everyone in town knows there’s a hungry cougar on the prowl. When the kids decide to take a break from their tricks and join forces in catching the cougar, guess who gets stuck with the scariest job? This will surely be something no one has ever done before.




Our Boys


Book Description

WINNER OF THE LONGMAN-HISTORY TODAY BOOK PRIZE 2019 WINNER OF THE TEMPLER MEDAL BOOK PRIZE 2019 WINNER OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON MEDAL FOR MILITARY HISTORY 2019 LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2019 'Brilliant. The best discussion of soldiers in combat, their motivation, behaviours and fears, that I have come across' Robert Fox, Evening Standard Our Boys brings to life the human experiences of the paratroopers who fought in the Falklands War, and examines the long aftermath of that conflict. It is a first in many ways - a history of the Parachute Regiment, a group with an elite and aggressive reputation; a study of close-quarters combat on the Falkland Islands; and an exploration of the many legacies of this short and symbolic war. Told unflinchingly through the experiences of people who lived through it, Our Boys shows how the Falklands conflict began to change Britain's relationship with its soldiers, and our attitudes to trauma and war itself. It is also the story of one particular soldier: the author's uncle, who was killed during the conflict, and whose fate has haunted both the author and his fellow paratroopers ever since. 'This is an extraordinary book. It is partly about the Falklands War itself and the terrible things that the Paras endured, and the terrible things that some of them did, but it is also about the white working class of the 1970s and why some men born into this class ended up marching across an island that most of them had never heard of. Thoughtful and sometimes heart-breaking' Richard Vinen, author of National Service




Speaking of Boys


Book Description

My eight-year-old son is the only boy in his class who doesn't have a Gameboy. I don't want him to be ostracized for not having one, but I worry that it's addictive. What do you think? Our two sons are eleven and fourteen, and they are fiercely competitive. The tension around our house is awful. How can we help them get along better? We've worked very hard to keep our ten-year-old son in touch with his feelings. Sometimes it seems as if we've put him at a disadvantage, surrounded by tougher boys who can be pretty cruel with teasing. How can we help him protect himself when other boys start to tease? With his bestselling book Raising Cain, Michael Thompson, Ph.D., at last broke the silence surrounding the emotional life of boys and spearheaded an important national debate. His warmth and humor quickly made him a popular and respected international speaker and consultant. Now he directs his authority, insight, and eloquence to answering your questions about raising a son. With candid questions and thoughtful, detailed responses, Speaking of Boys covers hot-button topics such as peer pressure, ADHD/ADD, and body image as well as traditional issues such as friendship, divorce, and college and career development. This perceptive, informative, and passionate book will leave you not only with useful, practical advice but also with the comforting knowledge that other parents share the same concerns you do when it comes to raising our boys into well-adjusted, responsible men.




Mothering Our Boys (US Edition)


Book Description

"Maggie is earthy and real, full of love and knowledge, especially on raising sons." - Steve Biddulph "Maggie's perspective on raising boys is spot on. She writes with humor and depth, providing insight and strategies for many of the most important issues facing moms. There is a lovely ease to her writing and a powerful honesty. I hope every mother of a son (and everyone else!) will read this book. The future of the world, to a great extent, depends on how we raise our boys." - Michael Gurian, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Wonder of Boys and Saving Our Sons If we can see the world through boys' eyes a little better, we will make different choices in the way we mother them… and we will find them less confusing, and love them more deeply. Mothers of sons are worried about raising their boys in a world where negative images of masculinity are front and centre of our media, almost every day. Not only that, but statistically our boys are still struggling in many ways. Even though we live in a time where we recognise that nothing in gender is fixed, it remains a fact that the influence of a mother on her son is massive. A mother of four sons herself, Maggie Dent draws on her personal experience - and over four decades work as a teacher, counsellor and now author and speaker - to help build understanding, empathy and compassion for our boys. Maggie shares her five key secrets that every mum needs to know and uses the voices of men she has worked with and surveyed to reveal what really matters in a boy's relationship with his mother and other mother figures. Maggie is one of Australia's most popular parenting authors and educators, and her seminars about boys have sold out all across Australia and in the UK. She is finally sharing her insights, her reflections, and (as always) her humour around mothering boys to help you be the mum your son needs you to be.




Raising Real Men


Book Description

Families with boys often find the world reacts to them in mock horror. Even though parents love their sons, privately they admit that boys can be a handful to raise--they are boisterous, competitive, reckless, distractable. The challenge of wills between parent and son starts early, and the quest to civilize young bulls may seem hopeless some days. Yet believers know that God has given them children as a gift of heaven, specially chosen for their particular families and marked as a blessing. If that's so, why does it seem so hard? How can we prepare these boys to serve God when it's all we can do to make it through another day? Isn't there a better way? Raising Real Men: Surviving, Teaching and Appreciating Boys shows the answer is emphatically yes. Written by the parents of six boys, Raising Real Men provides hope and encouragement to families with sons. Starting from the premise that God made boys to become men, Hal and Melanie Young offer Biblical principles and tested, practical ideas for training the manly virtues that can drive parents and teachers up the wall. This is a practical guide to equipping the hearts and minds of boys without breaking or losing your own. "...earthy, realistic, humorous, and scriptural ..." -- Douglas Wilson, author, Future Men "This is just what the doctor ordered for parents who want to raise capable Christian men of character." -- John Rosemond, author, Parenting By The Book




Raising Boys by Design


Book Description

Help your son grow into the strong, loving man God created him to be with Raising Boys by Design. Packed with doable strategies and eye-opening examples of what’s really going on inside a boy’s brain, Raising Boys by Design offers a practical blueprint to help you build a HERO—one who values Honor, Enterprise, Responsibility, and Originality. Among other things, you’ll learn how to help your son: • strengthen his character, resilience, and self-discipline • nurture genuine compassion and empathy • process words and emotions in ways that fit his brain chemistry • succeed in school and hone crucial life skills • develop a healthy perspective of sexuality • avoid the pitfalls of media and technology • embark on a lifelong adventure of faith This unique resource combines the latest research in brain science with timeless truths from the Bible to reveal the deepest needs shared by every boy of faith while also leading you to fresh insights for honoring the unique personality, talents, and God-given design of your son in particular. You can help your son thrive today as the hero he is meant to be when you learn the secrets of Raising Boys by Design.




Our Boys


Book Description




The Return of Our Boys


Book Description

Excerpt from The Return of Our Boys: A Tale of Great Days It had been a wet and cheerless summer. True to its name, it had rained nineteen days out of every nineteen. The war was over. Most of our soldiers had returned from Europe except those of whom we sadly said: They never will return! Those who had come back to us had most of them returned stronger and bigger in every way. In char acter and poise ten years older, we said, than when they went' away. They had left us boys. They had been given back to us men. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.




From Boys to Men


Book Description

One of Australia's favourite boy experts on how to help teen boys to develop into good men. For boys, adolescence can be a confusing minefield and parents are often bewildered as to how to best guide their precious sons. Many parents wake one day to find that their beautiful little boys have grown into silent, withdrawn, sometimes angry and often unmotivated tweens and teens. Well-known Australian author, parenting and resilience educator, and one of Australia's favourite boy experts Maggie Dent, offers parents and guardians a compassionate and practical guidebook, packed with advice and ground-breaking techniques on how to stay calm and: - Communicate effectively to defuse conflict - 'Unstick' an unmotivated son - Teach them to cope with loss and failure, and how to recover - Help them foster healthy friendships and intimate relationships - Navigate technology and the digital world. From Boys to Men empowers parents with insights, tips and a common-sense approach to help all boys - and their families - thrive as they progress through adolescence, offering hope for a future of adventure, stability, engagement and connection. Featuring a Foreword by Michael Gurian