New Books
Boys Will Be Men. By Helen A. Burnham, Evelyn G. Jones, and Helen D. Redford. Third Edition. Chicago: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1957, 477 pp., $4.
This is one of the few homemaking books written especially for boys at the secondary level. It is a revised and enlarged edition of The Boy and His Daily Living. Where a textbook is needed for a boys' class the book is very suitable. The contents are well organized into units. The opening chapter challenges the boy to consider his goals for the future in planning his everyday life. Unit 2, "Rules of the Game," deals with the subject of etiquette from the masculine point of view. Unit 3 or "What Shall I Wear?" includes spending money for clothes, clothes for the occassion, care of clothes, and personal grooming.
The book has 14 units with well-chosen, interesting titles. "Building Better Bodies" and "Let's Eat" includes the study of foods, their preparation and service; "Time Out" relates to home care of the sick; "Understanding Ourselves" and "Getting Along with Others" present material on personal and social relations; "After High School" helps with the choice between college and a job; "Concerning Consumers" and "Dollars and Sense" are useful in studying buying and budgeting; information on housing the family is included in "The House You Live In"; "When I Marry" touches on problems from the time a person chooses his life's partner until the children arrive; "We and Our Neighbors" points out some of the family's community responsibilities.
Naturally in 469 pages it is impossible to treat all phases of homemaking in great detail, but the sections on foods and clothing are particularly helpful in teaching high school boys. Material about clothing for the teen-age boy is not plentiful, and this is certainly one of the best sources available.
Anyone who teaches boys in homemaking classes will feel indebted to the authors for their excellent text for boys. -- Rosemary Howell, Hermitage High School, Richmond, Virginia
Journal of Home Economics, June 1957, pages 472-3