John Nikkah asked one simple question: What do the boys think? From the bestselling Ophelia Speaks to the "girl power" movement, teenage girls are speaking their minds and getting their due. But what about the boys? Aside from the works of a few academics, there seems to be no outlet in today's media for the true voices of teenage boys. Until now.
Nikkah contacted over five thousand schools across the country looking for the voices of America's boys. What are their goals, their fears, their hopes, their dreams? What are their lives really like as they stand on the verge of manhood? Our Boys Speak takes the best of hundreds of entries from boys aged twelve to eighteen from varied racial, economic, religious, and regional backgrounds. The essays, poems, diary entries, and stories cover topics ranging from sex and dating, sports, religion, depression, and violence to video games, family, and just about everything in between. Providing perspective and commentary on these writings is John Nikkah, a clinician, therapist, and young man who comes to new understandings about his own teenage years through the raw statements he encounters. This is a book for parents, for teens, for educators, and for the heart.
Our Boys Speak is the voices of our sons, our brothers, our friends, our neighbors, our families, ourselves. Sometimes painful, sometimes joyful, Our Boys Speak is most of all candid and real.
Cover design by Scott Levine
Cover photograph by Steve Snider
