TEEN TRAILBLAZERS

Thumbnail biographies highlighting formative boyhood experiences of 30 exceptional men past and present who have had a lasting impact.

The highlighted figures include 18th-century mathematician and astronomer Benjamin Banneker, World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, and gay activist Harvey Milk. Each chapter follows the same template: a few bullet points, which include dates of birth and death (if applicable), an impactful quote from the subject, a short biography, and interesting sidebar facts. This last element often provides the most interesting information in the book, like the fact that Louis Braille found a way to translate sheet music into braille, and Jacques Cousteau developed his love of the sea when he took up swimming as therapy after breaking both of his arms in a car crash. As for youthful accomplishments, Nelson Mandela was expelled from university for protesting, and David Hogg famously became an activist after surviving the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Other notable inclusions are quarterback Colin Kaepernick, Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, and Japanese video game developer and Pokémon inventor Satoshi Tajiri. Calvert’s crisp introduction pinpoints her hope that these brief, fact-filled portraits may spur readers to explore further. The book’s value in this regard is unfortunately weakened by a lack of recommended further reading, and its authority is undermined by an absence of sources. The text follows a White default. Color illustrations brighten the volume.

A cursory introduction to potential male role models.