In recent years several excellent books have been written about boys and masculinities and school; works by Askew and Ross, Mac and Ghaill and Connell spring to mind. Challenging Macho Values is a very useful addition to the literature focusing on boys and young men, or more specifically 'male youth as a problem'. However, what makes this book unique and long overdue, notwithstanding the pioneering work of the Whyld Publishing Co-op, is that it not only identifies the key influences contributing to the concerns about male youth, but suggests practical ways for teachers, youth workers and others to undertake boyswork, to attempt to challenge and change troublesome, harmful and under-achieving male youth, and the 'boys will be boys' attitude that appears to be have become so established.
Those teachers and others who have been eager to work with boys but were unsure how, will derive great benefit from this book. The authors are forthright in their belief that it is not all boys who are a problem, and their awareness of the plurality of young, and sometimes marginalised masculinities; using the structure of this book may enable their repressed voices to be heard.
The practical sessions suggested involve the boys in actively understanding themselves and each other more fully, and how, where and why they fit into society. There will be many challenges to the facilitators themselves in working in this way.
The authors provide very clear outlines of the aims of each activity, materials needed, length of time required, what to do and appropriate further reading, but there is still space for adapting one's own style or need to the programme.
The book is very well structured and easy to read. For the purpose of this review I read it from cover to cover and I got a feeling of slight repetition. However, this is not the intended use of this book. While the theory pages give a sufficient overview of each area of concern, it is essentially a handbook for supporting work with boys and obviously there is going to be some overlap between the sections. I would thoroughly recommend this book as being indispensable for use in all locales involving boys and young men.
Simon D. Pratt
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