Two Words, One Answer.
Wonder Boy
 Irving Thalberg: Boy Wonder to Producer Prince (Fletcher Jones Foundation Book in the Humanities) $34.95 This is an absolute must read for anyone interested in the Thalberg era. I could not put it down. This was an excellent, well written and balanced book. I think we all have heard of Thalberg but I am sure many like me could not tell you any great details of his life other than he was very powerful at M-G_M, was married to Norma Shearer and often accused of giving many of his best pictures to her because she was his wife. My only disappointment was there were no photographs.  All-Star Batman & Robin, The Boy Wonder, Vol. 1 $24.99 I like Miller's earlier Dark Knight work quite a bit, and I have a soft spot for Sin City, too. This is just horrible writing, though. It has none of the freshness of his other Batman writing, and the dialogue here is beyond cheesy (at one point he refers to a thug as a "wad," an insult I haven't heard since I was maybe 10 years old). I suppose this is supposed to be edgy, but I'd rather read the most mediocre of the current Batman titles within the regular continuity than this vanity project gone wrong. What a disappointment.  The Wonder of Boys $15.95 I bought this book for a quarter at a garage sale. I am a male, but I don't have kids of my own (and no I'm not looking to lure any into my unmarked van!) I'm a preschool teacher and when I bought this book I can't say I actually intended on reading it. I was more or less going to use it for reference, but I was suddenly confronted with a class that was almost entirely boys, and not just any type of boys but rowdy inattentive boys. I can see how a lot of reviewers have claimed that this book is sexist and lacks in scientific research. Normally I'm turned away by books that don't have solid scientific backing, but I work with kids and I can tell you...there's no exact anything, let alone science when it comes to understanding children. This is where this book has been incredibly helpful because a lot of his points are heavily based on observation. As a male myself with a strong sense of my own childhood, I can tell you his observations are fairly accurate when it comes to the things that boys need in order to thrive. I'm not saying every point he made was an exact science, but it struck a chord with me as a male because it fit with what I knew as a kid, and even what I know today to be true of myself. Some of his points are more general, such as boys being more spatially oriented, and task specific. And for those who are claiming he's sexist for even making distinctions in these area's, they need to do a little more research. I'm not for excluding any gender, but there are inherent differences between boys and girls and if you play to the strong suits of one or the other you're going to get a better effect. In my case I had to make my class more task driven. I made it everyone's "job" to be a kind friend to everyone, and it had a pretty instant effect on some of my more mean spirited boys. I added more open spaces, and more table activities that required fine motor skills to move an object from one place to another, and once again it had a dramatic effect on settling the energy in the room. Like I said, some of this stuff is common knowledge, and this book isn't breaking a whole lot of new ground. But it does cover a lot of ground in one book. I particularly liked the chapters on boys needing a tribe, and about the development of morals. There is a problem with young boys in this country, and one of the biggest issues is there is a major disconnect between the generations. I grew up not just with a father, but I was lucky enough to be the youngest of 4 generations of males in my family so I had a very strong sense of what it meant to be a part of something bigger than myself. I'm a preschool teacher, it's not necessarily the most masculine job, but I know that its ok to be male and work in a profession that is mainly dominated by females, and that's because I grew up surrounded by males of different generations who taught me and supported me as a person. I always had someone to look up to. Boys need that. They need to know its ok to be themselves, because right now they don't know what to be. (and the same can be said for girls. However women lately have been better at providing this for girls than the men have for boys) This book may not be hard science, but it's relate-able and usable information that, when you put adult biases and fears aside, is a valuable resource to anyone who works with or cares about the direction boys in our country are heading. |
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