Reaching Up for Manhood: Transforming the Lives of Boys in America by Geoffrey Canada

Product Details

Synopsis

The author of Fist Stick Knife Gun brings powerful new insight to the lives of boys in America today: "More and more I have become concerned with what boys think they should be, and what they believe it means to be a man." He lays out the little-understood history of drugs and their marketing to inner-city boys and takes a hard look at the issue of too-early sex, showing us, through a pointed story of his own sexual education on the streets, how the combination of age-old urges with new cultural forces and mores has created a volatile sexual terrain for boys. Canada writes indelibly of the young boy he once was and of the crucial issues ófatherhood, healing, mentors, self-esteem, faith, and more óthat must be negotiated as boys in America reach up for manhood.

Boys are conditioned not to let on that it hurts, never to say, "I'm still scared." I have come to see that in teaching boys to deny their own pain we inadvertently teach them to deny the pain of others. . . . We must remember to tell them, "I know it hurts. Come let me hold you. I'll hold you until it stops. And if you find out that the hurt comes back, I'll hold you again. I'll hold you until you're healed."

"Reaching Up for Manhood took me by surprise, because it is so tender, and so unpretentious, and so personal. It's a beautiful story, simply told óhonest, deeply sensitive, and morally empowering óby one of the few authentic heroes of New York and one of the best friends children have, or ever will have, in our nation."

—Jonathan Kozol

Annotation

An exploration of current cultural messages about being a man.

Library Journal

The president and CEO of the Rheedlen Centers for Children Families, an award-winning child-advocacy agency, Canada (Fist Stick Knife Gun, LJ 5/15/95) grew up on tough South Bronx streets, where he witnessed friends dying by the handful. Recounting his childhood at midlife, he powerfully depicts what children face in today's world, especially the crippling problems of African American boys. Canada asserts that we are facing a crisis situation; gender stress, misperceptions of the male role, and male myths have led many young men on a path to self-destruction. The author emphasizes the necessity of building strong father-son bonds to help boys reach manhood and to perpetuate good father instincts. His book answers the tough questions: "How did things get like this?" and "What can we do?" Recommended for all libraries.Michael A. Lutes, Univ. of Notre Dame Libs., Ind.

Biography

Geoffrey Canada is president of the Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families in New York City. He is the recipient of a 1995 Heinz Foundation Award and a Parents Magazine Award for his work in child advocacy, and he is author of Fist Stick Knife Gun (Beacon/paperback/0-8070-0423-5/$12.00).