Review of "What's Happening to My Body? Book for Boys"

This book for preteens and teens focuses on puberty, providing clear and straightforward information about the bodily changes associated with the onset of sexual maturity.  The chapters are

1.      Puberty

2.      Beginning Changes and the States of Puberty

3.      An Owner's Guide to the Sex Organs: What's Normal? What's Not?

4.      The Puberty Growth Spurt

5.      Pimples, Perspiration, Body Hair, Shaving and Other Changes

6.      Changes in the Male Reproductive Organs: Erections, Sperm, and Ejaculations

7.      Spontaneous Erections, Orgasms, Masturbation, and Wet Dreams

8.      Girls and Puberty

9.      Romantic and Sexual Feelings

It has many black and white illustrations dealing with all sorts of concerns from body hair to penis size.  It explains some facts about sex and dating, but it's primary concern is on the development of an individual.  The final chapter does address briefly some of the concerns boys often have about crushes, homosexual feelings, dating, love and sex, and the book offers positive and non-judgmental advice. The What's Happening to My Body? Book for Boys will be useful for boys wanting to understand the changes they are experiencing.  It should reassure the many boys who fear that they are not normal that in fact their development is not at all unusual.  The book has very little to say about the emotional changes that often accompany puberty, which can be just as confusing, but then it never pretends to address all the issues faced by adolescents.  Judged for what it aims to do, it could be an excellent resource for parents and their sons.

 

© 2002 Christian Perring. All rights reserved.

Christian Perring, Ph.D., is Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island. He is editor of Metapsychology Online Review. His main research is on philosophical issues in psychiatry. He is especially interested in exploring how philosophers can play a greater role in public life, and he is keen to help foster communication between philosophers, mental health professionals, and the general public.