Boys into Men: Staying Healthy through the Teen Years - Hardcover

MARK A. GOLDSTEIN, M.D., an adolescent medicine specialist, is Chief of Pediatrics and Student Health Services at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at the Harvard Medical School.

MYRNA CHANDLER GOLDSTEIN has been a freelance writer and independent scholar for two decades. Her website is Doing Good, While Doing Business: Support Socially Responsible Companies (www.changethemold.com). She is the author of Boys Into Men, Controversies in Food and Nutrition, and Controversies in the Practice of Medicine with Greenwood Press.

Gr 7 Up-The Goldsteins take on a host of physical- and mental-health issues that are common among adolescent boys. They include possible sports injuries and those that can occur while engaging in outdoor activities, issues related to sexuality and emotional health, chronic conditions and diseases, and issues of special concern to gay teens. Much of the text has an avuncular tone, frequently beginning a section with an anecdote about one of Dr. Mark Goldstein's patients before launching into a discussion of the specific issues involved. Frequent pencil drawings, many of them humorous, add to the nonthreatening tone. Despite the obvious sincerity of the effort, the book seems rather slapdash. The tense frequently jumps from second person to third person, from a formal to an informal voice. Some sections, such as the discussion of a minor's right to seek medical care with or without parental consent, will leave many readers baffled, and, in some cases, the information is questionable. For example, it isn't necessary for campers in the U.S. to cover themselves with mosquito netting to protect against vampire-bat attacks. Each chapter includes sources for more information, but the magazines listed are frequently medical journals that will probably be too difficult for many readers. Lynda Madaras's The What's Happening to My Body? Book for Boys (Newmarket, 2000) is a better, though not as comprehensive choice.

Todd Morning, Schaumburg Township Public Library, IL

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.