{Book Review} Wild Things: The Art of Nurturing Boys

A loooooong time ago, I loved to read. I read voraciously when I was a kid, staying up well past my bedtime to read just one more chapter of whatever book I was reading at the time. When I started law school, I don’t think I read anything besides my law books or study guides…for pleasure, I picked up Us Weekly or People magazine because frankly, my brain needed a break! After taking the bar exam and beginning work, I don’t know that I read a book for several years. While I don’t typically make New Year’s resolutions, this year I set a goal to read 24 books by the end of the year. So far, I have read only four, but that is four more than I have read in years (not counting all the children’s books I read to my son).  This is a book review about the best book I have read as a parent:  Wild Things:  The Art of Nurturing Boys.  

I remember feeling overwhelmed when I found out I was having a boy — I am a girl and I know about girls.  I worried that as he got older, I wouldn’t know what to do or how to relate to him.   If this was or is you, BUY THIS BOOK.  When my son was still a baby, I had heard about the book and even put a copy in my cart on Amazon. I ended up not purchasing and never came back to it until a couple of months ago. I am so very glad I ended up buying it and reading it. From its title to its themes, the book plays off of the children’s story Where the Wild Things Are. If it has been a minute since you have read Where the Wild Things Are, you may remember that Max, the little boy, gets in trouble for making mischief and is sent to his room, where he imagines himself traveling alone to a faraway place (where the wild things are) and he becomes king of the wild things and there is a wild rumpus…until he misses home and goes back to his room to find a warm supper waiting for him. The authors, Stephen James and David Thomas, do an excellent job of walking the reader through the stages a boy goes through: The Explorer (ages 0-4 years), The Lover (ages 5-8 years), The Individual (ages 9-12 years), The Wanderer (ages 13-17 years), and The Warrior (ages 18-22 years). Having a four, almost five year old now, I found myself nodding my head in agreement as I acknowledged each of the traits in my Explorer-turning-Lover little boy.