When Boys Become Boys

“To what extent are ‘masculine’ qualities innate?  This is just one of the questions that Judy Y. Chu sets out to answer in her book When Boys Become Boys, based on a two-year study in which she observed a group of six boys from pre-kindergarten to grade one (age four to six) at a US school….Ultimately, When Boys Become Boys is not a critique of prevailing masculine ideals but a plea for adults to help boys resist societal pressures so that they do not feel compelled to censor, distort or misrepresent themselves in order to accommodate these externally imposed standards.”

"Reading When Boys Become Boys has significantly altered my thinking about what it means to be a boy."

"Chu writes in a manner that is easy to understand and as she bases her research on relational theory, she often comes back to and describe the ways in which relationships become the basis for the boys in her study. Parents will also find this book valuable as they navigate early childhood with their child or children."

“Chu presents an engaging observational study, taking as her subjects six preschool boys, much in the tradition of Vivian Paley's Superheroes in the Doll Corner (CH, Jan'85). A foreword by Carol Gilligan, who sponsored the original research, sets the tone of this study as an inv


estigation of the ways boys establish the social and emotional habits that allow them to navigate the world of the boy group and later the world of men. The critical focus is on how boys understand the relational world in the preschool years, and how they maintain their relational capacities while learning gender roles. The text is full of delicately observed descriptions and verbatim discussions between Chu and the boys. […] Depth is added by inclusion of interviews with parents and by the contributions of teachers, giving some background to the children's views of gender. Helpful notes add value. This volume will be excellent supplemental classroom reading and a helpful guide for observational projects, and the style and topic extend the book's audience beyond the academy. Summing Up: Highly recommended.”

"Chu possesses three rare gifts: she gets boys to open up to her and describe their lives in gorgeous detail; she listens with extraordinary compassion, and she analyzes their experiences with the meticulous care of both finely tuned head and heart.  In so doing, she gives us a single gift both rare and precious: a look inside the world of boys, wriggling between demands about performing for others, and eager to be who they really are."

"[H]er book offers an insightful portrait of group interactions and hierarchy in boys. She convincingly makes the case that, being human, boys share with girls the capacity to relate."

"In this provocative and beautifully written book, Judy Chu reveals that we have been telling ourselves a false story about boys and their development. Boys, she finds, don’t start off being the emotionally disconnected stereotype that our culture projects onto them.  They become those stereotypes via cultural socialization. Yet boys also resist, and maintain their humanity despite living in a culture that denies it to them. A must read for anyone interested in boys."