A useful guide that poses important, soul-searching questions in an engaging manner.
Helps readers develop an individual understanding of masculinity through a series of prompts and simple worksheets.
Reigeluth begins with three separate letters, one to teen guys; one to parents, caregivers, and mentors; and one to therapists, counselors, and other supporters. His introduction lucidly explains “Guy Code” and its potential toxicity, lays out the structure of the book, and offers the first few activities designed to help readers understand their own views surrounding issues of masculinity. In one, there’s a list of attributes relating to physical appearance, interests, and emotional traits to be tagged as either relating to girls and women or guys. Each chapter unpacks a specific aspect of conventional thinking about masculinity then provides activities to help readers understand how the Guy Code influences them. For example, in assessing messages about sports being more important than school, related activities include identifying personal goals and tagging specific academic subjects and extracurriculars according to gender messaging. The activities are nicely presented, and, as explained in Michael G. Thompson’s foreword, such self-knowledge can empower the individual to choose his own path. But the author sometimes tends to oversimplify and overgeneralize. This is particularly true when he tries to explain masculinity through the lenses of culture and race, a sensitive topic that begs for more in-depth treatment. The appendices explore sex versus gender, the gender spectrum, and more.
A useful guide that poses important, soul-searching questions in an engaging manner. (references) (Nonfiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-68403-949-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Instant Help Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
The proximity to pain makes for a choppy narrative but also vitally draws attention to a global crisis
This memoir of modern domestic slavery ends with hope and determination, as young author Hall (born Shyima El-Sayed Hassan) is “one of the fortunate 2 percent” to be freed from servitude.
Shyima’s childhood in Egypt ends when her parents are blackmailed into turning over their 8-year-old daughter to a wealthy couple. Every day, Shyima cleans the five-story house and the 17-car garage, “standing on a stool doing the dishes” because she’s too tiny to reach the sink. When she’s 10, Shyima’s captors move to California, illegally trafficking her into the U.S. After two more years of hard labor and increasing ill health, a worried neighbor calls the police, and Shyima’s journey into freedom begins. A chain of Muslim and Christian foster parents (some protective, others exploitative) leads her to become an anti-slavery activist. Unsurprisingly, Hall’s representations of Arab and Muslim men are filtered through her appalling experiences. Though she acknowledges misogyny “is not what the Muslim faith is about,” readers should expect to find depictions that hew closely to negative stereotypes. Those readers prepared to brave a dense, adult tome could move from Hall’s memoir to John Bowe’s Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy (2007) for a deeper look.
The proximity to pain makes for a choppy narrative but also vitally draws attention to a global crisis . (Nonfiction. 13-16)Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-8168-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013
A poignant glimpse into an artist in the making.
Internationally acclaimed illustrator McMullan (I’m Fast, 2012), best known for Lincoln Center Theater posters and picture books with his wife, reflects on his childhood in China and wartime journeys in search of home.
Young McMullan, a nervous boy and grandson of missionaries, is born in Cheefoo, China, in 1934. He enjoys a comfortable lifestyle due to the family businesses, including an orphanage and embroidery exports. Soon, World War II dawns, and the Japanese army invades the town, causing the boy and his parents to flee to Shanghai. There, his father joins the British army, while he and his mother set sail for America. In two-page spreads, prose on the left opposite illustrations on the right, memories are recalled with vivid clarity and a quiet strength. The author’s subdued but elegant drawings set the most reverent tones. Tender scenes, such as the author playing next to a rectangle of sunlight while his father bends over the piano or his fascinated examination of brush strokes on Chinese scrolls, illustrate how little moments really do have the greatest impact. Painful and terrifying recollections take shape, as well: his failure to become a “strong little fellow” in his father’s eyes, a bomb scare aboard a passenger freighter or his ineptitude at boxing. These experiences, both extraordinary and ordinary, intertwine to create a memoir that resonates. (Finished, full-color art not seen.)
A poignant glimpse into an artist in the making. (Memoir. 12-16)Pub Date: March 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61620-255-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
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