Healthy Living Books Books

Rating: - Compulsory reading for all teachers and parents !
As a teacher of more than 25 years experience, I thought I knew quite a lot about how to educate boys in their last year at primary school. However Steve Biddulph has managed in one fell swoop to make me sit up and really challenge some of my long held beliefs in the way boys should be taught. I bought the book and within 48 hours have read it from cover to cover three times. Some of his observations had me punching the air yelling 'Yes!;some of the stories had me in tears as I recognised incidents from own childhood; and some of the life history stories made me want to hang my head in shame, because I recognised myself as the speaker of certain words, or perpretrator of some actions that caused hurt, bewilderment to the children entrusted to my care. The style is easy to read, but he also has a very powerful way with one liners that are often an uncomfortable jolt back to reality. I would like to equip every parent of every boy I am likely to teach in the future with this book - because there is no doubt - this man is a genius !

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Rating: - Mostly based on outdated research
I felt insulted and patronised by this book, which is written in a hectoring style. Many of the ideas appear to be based on research from the 1950s which has since been discredited ... not a classic to my mind!

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Rating: - Really helped me with my son -
Readers may like to know that Steve Biddulph's books are hugely popular where we come from back in Australia - used in almost one in four family homes, according to one newspaper - precisely because they are the opposite of the past reviewers opinion - they are accessible, funny, very practical, and down to earth, and seem to be written from the heart. Biddulph has been around in Australia for about 20 years, and was brave enough to question the dogma about children being born genderless, and back this up with good science.

As a feminist, I find his book perfect because it helps me ACHIEVE those goals of raising my boy to be a great human being, but also to understand that he is not like me.

The three stages of boyhood are far from obvious, and I haven't seen them written elsewhere. But when you have a boy, you can see them at work and its a great help.

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Rating: - I was not especially impressed with this book.
I'm afraid I disagree with most of the other reviews, in that I found this man's style of writing so annoying that I found it hard to force myself to keep on reading. He was patronising and didn't seem to say anything that wasn't blindingly obvious, like boys are more physical than girls, or that they need their dads from the age of 7 onwards.

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Rating: - Prepare for Guilt Trip!
If sweeping statements like "If you're working a fifty to sixty hour week, then you just won't cut it as a dad" are what you or your partner need to hear, then this is the book for you! How about some advice for those of us in this position Steve, apart from "give up your job". Easy for you mate, selling millions of copies a year! Apart from that, this book is full of good advice and sense. It will force you to think about fatherhood and your relationship with your kid(s) and probably change them for the better.