MixedThe New York TimesIf Oster were to analyze her own work here, she’d pick it apart, weighing the evidence in a quest for smooth, causational proof ... Most of the existing research, frustratingly, focuses on test scores and obesity as measures of kids’ well-being. Indeed, Oster is forced by her own methodology to admit, time and again, that there is no clear answer beyond the obvious ... Read The Family Firm in the same way Oster advises you to read the research: Take what applies to your life, consider the source and skip the rest.
Peggy Orenstein
PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewOrenstein’s Boys & Sex is a natural follow-up to her 2016 best seller Girls & Sex. The young men we meet here tend to be hyperarticulate — to the extent that I was initially skeptical of their eloquence ... However unexpected it is, though, the boys’ willingness and ability to share is also decidedly eye-opening ... Every few pages, the boy world cracks open a little bit like that ... To her credit, Orenstein acknowledges her biases. And, through story after story, she forced me to see mine: I was wrong to presume that young men couldn’t be beautifully well spoken and lucid about issues of love and sex. In fact, that assumption is so common, it’s at the root of our problems.
Cara Natterson
RaveThe New York Times Book Review... clear and urgent ... zippy, bighearted ... for rational, evidence-based advice on how to talk to your son about every internal and external force he’ll experience from fourth grade through college, Cara Natterson’s zippy, bighearted Decoding Boys is the guide you need ... Natterson is ambitious in her scope. She acknowledges that explaining neurobiology, testicular growth, the gun crisis, screen addiction, sexting, consent and how to talk about it all is too much for 200 pages. But those are the intertwined realities of parenting a boy in 2020, and none of us can opt out ... Natterson is empathic and funny in her approach ... Routinely, Natterson checks her writerly ego for the sake of clarity and health, offering anecdotes right up front.
