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It's a Boy: Women Writers on Raising Sons
by
Andrea J. Buchanan (Goodreads Author)
The most popular question any pregnant woman is asked — aside from "When are you due?" — has got to be "Are you having a girl or a boy?" When author Andrea Buchanan, already a mom to a little girl, was pregnant with her second child, she marveled at the response of friends and total strangers alike: "Boys are wonderful," "Boys are so much better than girls," "Boys love the...more
Paperback, 272 pages
Published
November 11th 2005
by Seal Press
(first published October 21st 2005)
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I read "It's a Girl" after Louisa was born and enjoyed that a lot, so this was required reading after Thomas was born. Once again, I really enjoyed it. I found a common experience within these pages about raising these little alien beings. And that is so very comforting! While I'd love to say that gender doesn't matter, it is a scary thing to me to raise something that I am not. Girls I know. Boys?! Eeek! Who knew that this fear is so common among mothers?! Comforting, indeed.
If you are a mother of a son of any age you have to read this collection of essays. I read it just after my son was born and it gave me such a glimpse of what might be down the road for us. I checked it out of the library, after reading a review of it in Brain, Child Magazine. I liked it so much I bought it. I expect I'll get more out of it as my son gets older.
Like many books about the experience of motherhood, this is a compilation of different mothers talking about their experiences. In this case, the common thread is the challenges and joys of raising boys. (There is a "girl" version of the book as well). The essays range from mother's discussing their disappointments on finding out they were having a son instead of a daughter to the advantages of raising a son versus raising a daughter. The mothers are at all different points in their motherhood -...more
I bought this book days after the ultrasound. I have a near-two-year-old daughter; I was convinced this second would be a girl too. (And, in all fairness, I was convinced with Maya that she would be a boy, so much so that I balked at the announcement, asking the tech to check again, so it turns out my motherly intuition is completely out of whack, and I've had to make peace with that.) I was ready for a boy then, but somehow, after twenty-two months of re-analyzing my feminist attitudes, I'm goi...more
It's A Boy is a series of short essays by female authors (including Jodi Picoult and Jacquelyn Mitchard) on various aspects of being a woman and raising a boy. I found them, by and large, to be thoughtful, poignant and relatable. There were certain topics that didn't really pertain to me (having a boy after having a girl; dealing with a teenage boy) and others that really resonated with me (worrying about how to best raise a boy; watching your boy develop a definite preference for trucks and mas...more
I picked this book up at the thrift store when I was expecting my son. I didn't get around to reading it until some time after he was born, and maybe the new maternal hormones played a role, but I loved this book. The essays are heartwarming, touching, humorous, familiar... all that's needed to turn me into a puddle of sentiment. I hope to reread it again, now that I have a few years of motherhood under my belt, and see if I feel any differently about it. I am sure I will be even more sentimenta...more
This was a great little collection of essays about mothering boys. It left me with an awareness of just how short babyhood is, and now that I've been done with it for a few hours, it is making me appreciate the physicality of my relationship with Max all the more. He won't always need me so intimately, and the way we are together will have so many stages. I liked that this book helped me to think further about gender roles, about the varying ways "boyness" manifests, and about what it means for...more
Excellent collection of a number of different mothers' accounts of raising boys. This was a good book that gave me a glimpse of what was to come when I learned that, after growing up with two sisters, I was pregnant with a boy (and now have two). Emotions vary across each account due to the experience recorded. While some are emotionally difficult to read (especially for a new/expecting mother), the book is very real.
I enjoyed most of these short essays about mothering boys. It was a little repetitive, with many of the essays echoing similar themes: I didn't want a boy but now that I have him I love him; I wanted my boy to break gender stereotypes but he's very masculine; or having a teenage boy living with you is like living with something non-human. The few that broke this mold were refreshing, and all were well-written.
Really good. As the new mother of a son, this book validated some of my feelings (what? I'm not having a girl?!) and helped me envision my future as the mother of a toddler, child, and teenaged boy. Some essays were stronger than others. All in all, a very worthwhile collection.
I'm a little better than halfway through this, and I'm waiting to see if the balance will ever shift away from women who are SO FLUMMOXED by having a boy, and then marvel at their boys who act like, well, boys, but are still remarkably gentle and kind. On the whole, I like personal essays, but there's not a lot of diversity of opinion (or even socioeconomic class) represented in this collection, so it seems like the same essays over and over.
To be fair, I may just be grumpy with this book becaus...more
To be fair, I may just be grumpy with this book becaus...more
Really disappointing collection of essays by mostly ultra-modern feminist types. I pushed through the fact that I could not identify with One Thing in all the pregnancy-to-toddler essays, (as a mother of FOUR boys I was incredulous) hoping that there might be some bits of wisdom or at least humor in the older boy sections. No. Mostly vulgar comparisons to teenage boys in the mother's past or otherwise disdaining of their growing man. So sad I wasted my time.
I love the editor's website -- Literary Mama. The essays within were uneven, unavoidably with different authors. I would love to invite Suzanne Kamata over for coffee -- alas, she lives in Japan...
The first essays are mothers who really wanted girls or wanted their boys to be less boy-like (or more boy-like). Not much about the raising of sons but more about how their expectations of their children were not met.
The later essays are about boys turning into teenagers which I'm not ready to face yet. I only read the first one, realizing I'd read later essays by same author and know her son-in-transition is now dead after falling in with the wrong crowd and developing a drug problem. Too sad...more
The later essays are about boys turning into teenagers which I'm not ready to face yet. I only read the first one, realizing I'd read later essays by same author and know her son-in-transition is now dead after falling in with the wrong crowd and developing a drug problem. Too sad...more
The quality of these essays is inconsistent, but I had to read it anyway. For the sheer comfort value.
There were parts of this book that frightened me, but others just made me laugh out loud!
Gift from my sister in law- GREAT book about what it means to be the mother of a boy.
I thought this was a great view of motherhood through the ages of your child; from the first inkling of pregnancy to the hairy, smelly teenage years. There were many essays that made me cry and come back to reality with a real love of this tiny amount of time that I have with my own bebe. It helped give me a view into what could be our future together and for that reason along I liked the book. I would definitely recommend it to mothers. I might, in fact, send this to my own mom-she might actual...more
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i laughed, i cried - can't wait to meet my little guy!
Raising sons is not as intuitive as you think! Seriously, I enjoyed these stories and found them positive and uplifting.
Good essays about raising boys
like most anthologies, this was rather hit-or-miss. it's not a how-to guide to raising boys, or very much like a "parenting book." a lot of the stories are irritating in that charming gender-assumptive way. i really appreciated katie kaput's piece on being a queer trans teen momma, and a few of the other pieces were insightful or clever as well. it wasn't a total wash, but it lacked a lot of the critical thinking, feminist perspectives, insights, and commentaries on raising boys that i was hopin...more
A touching and often humorous collection of essays about sons.
A collection of short stories from women authors. Some are inspring, some sentimental, some laugh-out-loud funny, all touching on the issues, anxieties, and joys that come with raising a son. Organized by the age of the boy discussed, from conception to teen years.
Helpful, humorous, and insightful (for the most part). Jodi Picoult's essay was the worst.
Overall I enjoyed the book. I could relate to some of the earlier essays especially and was encouraged by some of the later ones. I especially loved Pretty Boy towards the end and feel better about letting my little man explore his feminine side or not as he sees fit.
I read this collection of essays at the right time, as I'm in a particularly difficult season parenting my 2.5- and 4-year-old boys. This collection was a good reminder that these years, difficult as they seem, are something to be cherished and will pass by way too quickly. I didn't relate to or even enjoy a few of the essays, but the ones I did love left me highlighting passages and saying, "Yes. Exactly this."
I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. It was OK. Not terrible but not great either. Expecting a boy, I was hoping to read a few more stories by women who weren't so very very disappointed to be having a son. But almost every essay name dropped Proust and expressed disappointment over the fact that there was a boy coming instead of a girl.
This book was okay. Some of the stories were cute but lacked overarching themes. Most of the authors were of the same socioeconomic and cultural background and their writing lacked self-awareness. Are women really that silly about "the other sex"? If anything, this book reminded me to enjoy everyday with my son and let him be who he will become.
As with all multiple author essay books, some better than others. If you have a boy bring a tissue.
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Andrea J. Buchanan is a New York Times bestselling writer whose newest book is the young adult novel GIFT. Her work includes The Daring Book For Girls, Mother Shock, and six other books. Before becoming a writer, Andi was a classical pianist; she studied at the Boston Conservatory of Music, where she earned her bachelor of music degree, and continued her graduate studies at the San Francisco Conse...more
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