Rating: 
Summary: a very important book
Review: Very thought-provoking. To be a fully functioning human being, one must be able to express all emotions without shame or fear of ridicule. Released from the emotional straight jacket imposed by the boyhood myth of what a real man is, men are less threatened, more secure in who they are and all of us benefit.
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Summary: boys can think
Review: Every parent I know tends to fall into the same old habit of not letting our kids think for themselves. This seems to be especially true for boys. Or, maybe we want to change their thinking pattern all together. The author feels the "feelings" of real boys are not real at all because we won't allow them to feel what they really want to express. Adults have a poor judgement call when it comes to not letting boys say what they mean and mean what they say. Here's the simple terms of the real message: stop, look and listen to everything your kids have to say. Don't label and certainly don't expect rough behavior without ever looking for the soft and sensitive side of little boys. Don't mock, laugh or blame boys for being afraid to speak up on various issues, but instead, encourage them to appreciate their own words and feelings when it comes to describing the high and low of their emotions. The book is a must have and will build a better life for all boys and thier families if it is taken to heart. Two other titles for good and reasonable reading for all children - Why Can't You Catch Me Being Good, by Edythe Denkin and one which will build success in any family, but not just for moms, "Mommy-CEO," new edition, by parent educator, Jodie Lynn. Many of Mr. Pollack's terms and also including the other two authors, in trying to explain how parents really do make a huge difference in the day in and day out adult behavior towards their children, are well thought out in each of the three books. If many of the most popular authors are talking about much of the same thing, their research and ideas must mean something: boys can think and learn from us like a reflection in a mirror. Let's build a new nation of mindful kids.
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Summary: lets talk boys
Review: This bbok is so helpful and informative. It makes you think twice about the way we talk to boys. Boys are fragile and should not be put under the stress of manhood by society. Pollack is brilliant in his attempt to make his readers aware of this! People need to stop looking at blue and pink's and look at the underlying truth of boys and their never ending struggle to be understood...
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Summary: This book shows you the truth of our society!
Review: Real Boys is an enlightning book that shows you how boys think and react. William Pollack gives you a good taste of this by explaining just how boys think and react in situations. How they differ from girls. Boys are made to be tough and told to hide their feelings and then people wonder why their are so many killings! Society needs to look at themselves and accept what has been unaccepted LET BOYS BE BOYS! Julie-
Rating: 
Summary: TOO MODERN, TOO POLITICALLY CORRECT...
Review: My take on this book is as simple as can be - TOO EFFEMINATE! It should be common knowledge now that trying to turn boys into girls does not work. Whether he wishes to face it or not, boys and girls are different. While Pollack does make some points, he neglects the fact that toughness, agression, hiding feelings (to a point), etc, are hard-wired into a boy. To try to turn boys against their very nature is not the way to go. 'Tis true that some boys' behavior has gotten out of control, but this is not the way to go about effecting change.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: As a counselor for emotionally disturbed teenagers I was really exited to read this book. Unfortunately, Pollock tends to point out the obvious. Yes, it is okay for boys to cry, be sure and not to call your son a "sissy", etc... This book could have been written in a five pages. Very monotonous reading.
Rating:
Summary: Good ideas, but sometimes repetitive
Review: As a person who has been a teacher and an administrator in high and elementary schools, I value much of what William Pollack has written in this book. I did find he repeated himself frequently, especially in the second half of the book. A criticism of the book also is it seems to focus on families who have enough money to afford insurance for counseling. While I believe that many of the principals Pollack discussed are relevant to boys of American socio-economic classes, I wonder if he had ever focused on other groups to test his ideas.His chapter on schools is quite good, especially since he presents ideas on what to do.
Rating:
Summary: interesting and helpful
Review: very helpful and insightful. The first few chapters are very interesting, the others cover so many different topics it is hard to believe the author did them justice.
Rating:
Summary: An Eye Opener!
Review: A must read for anyone raising boys. The book exposes how society's definition of masculinity affects our sons and how we, as parents, caregivers and other adult role models, can counteract that. Insightful and thought provoking.
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Summary: please someone give this man a real job
Review: As someone raised by a single mother, I have to take issue with the author's assumption that women are caring and nurturing, blah blah blah. I learned pretty much most of my aggressive tendencies from Mom and very little from the action and slasher movies which I saw. This book is the standard attack on gender roles which decides arbitrarily that the last 4000 years have been all bad, most of today is horrible and if only we could live in some Victorian society where the men are crying their eye's out at the drop of a hat, then life would be perfect. Sorry Harvard Boy. It's a long way from the Ivory Tower to reality. What Pollack views as evil and detrimental is simple survival. Yes, boys are conditioned not to cry. But if boys cried every single time they got hurt they'd have no tears left for real emotional upheaval. I got a backache shoveling snow today. By Mr. Pollack's viewpoint, the fact that I simply swore and kept shoveling is a bad thing bruoght on by SOCIETY which is at fault particularly THE MEDIA. That men (and many women) like action movies is one of the few bonding things we got. YOu take a group of men who have absolutely nothing in common and the action movie will bond them - be it Enter the Dragon, Die-Hard or Schwarzennegger Kills People - it will create a community where there were only a bunch of people who had to work at the same place. Sports are the same way. I seriously doubt you can say the same thing about long treatises written by Harvard professors. At heart, this book is an attack on aggressiveness and a cheerleading squad for sensitivity. While there is something to be said for the overabundance of Aggressiveness in a person at the expense of sensitivity, there is also something wrong with the overabundance of sensitivity at the expense of aggressiveness. It's not good to be a doormat, as the average feminist will tell you, so why should we be striving for that just because the opposite is also stupid. For a better discussion on gender roles read Rene Denfeld's treatises on female aggression or The Preacher by Garth Ennis (in 8 installments). On the other hand if you are a Faludi fan, forget that I recommended anything. There's no hope for you.
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