I’d like to thank EP Books for giving me a copy of Growing Up God’s Way for boys by Dr. Chris Richards and Dr. Liz Jones in return for my honest review.
My husband and I recently finished parenting through puberty for the fourth time.
Judging by the conversations I’ve had with other parents, puberty is a tumultuous time… for moms and dads. I get it. We don’t want to explain awkward personal details about growing up to our boys and girls.
Sometimes, if we’re really honest, we don’t want them to grow up at all.
It’s easy to think that if we just ignore the coming of puberty–if we just shelter our kids enough–we can avoid this messy parenting issue altogether.
But puberty is God’s plan for our kids. He designed it.
It’s our job to explain this new season of life to our children–before they’re hit upside the head by biology. Are you with me?
Books about puberty present a whole issue in and of themselves. Sometimes, they present a view of sexuality that completely disagrees with God’s plan for marriage and faithfulness. Other times, they may be biblically based, but may editorialize in areas we’re not comfortable agreeing with. Still others, books about puberty may give far too much insight into sin in an attempt to sway children to stay on the straight and narrow.
Those have been some of my concerns with books on puberty that I’ve looked at for boys.
What we need is a straightforward, biblical resource about puberty written for boys. It should be scientific, it should include God’s design for marriage and family, and it should be age appropriate–explaining the truth of God’s plan for boys moving toward manhood without a lot of questionable opinions.
Christian Puberty Book for Boys
Growing Up God’s Way for Boys (EP Books, 2013) is just such a book. It’s a wonderful primer on puberty written just for boys ages 10-14 by two Christian pediatricians from the UK, Dr. Chris Richards and Dr. Liz Jones.
Growing Up God’s Way for Boys is a well-produced 76-page resource with thick pages and colored cartoons (like the one on the cover) on nearly every page.
The book explains to boys their upcoming transformation into men with candor and sensitivity. There is an emphasis on God’s intent for family and the proper use of intimacy (within marriage only).
The book also briefly and carefully explains the changes that will occur within girls as they go through puberty. This is important because boys may one day be married, and they truly need to know where babies come from. However, if your child isn’t ready for this particular chapter, it’s easily censored for a period of time by reading the book aloud and skipping the information about girls.
A word about the cartoons: there are a few anatomical cartoons that help illustrate points about puberty, prenatal development in the womb, and childbirth. They’re not graphic and they are cartoons. They were enough to make my ten-year-old blush (I shared the book with him at that time–he is much older now). I thought they were far less revealing than most non-fiction anatomy books for elementary school students.
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Growing Up God’s Way for Boys chapter headings:
- An introduction to puberty
- Marriage
- Puberty and how it starts
- How your body changes
- How the body changes in girls
- Physical intimacy
- Changes in the way you think
- Going out and beyond {on the process of dating}
- Preparing for the future
Friends, we must address the topic of puberty biblically with our kids in an upbeat manner. Puberty is a part of God’s grand plan for our kids.
Growing Up God’s Way for Boys by Dr. Chris Richards and Dr. Liz Jones is an excellent resource to use with your 10-14-year-old boys.
Purchase Growing Up God’s Way for Boys and Growing Up God’s Way for Girls
Growing Up God’s Way for Girls
Growing Up God’s Way for Boys
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Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible
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As parents, we deeply desire the best for our kids. We look for the right schools, we make them eat right and exercise, and we get them involved in extracurricular activities. We take our job as parents seriously.
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