Teenage Guys: Exploring Issues Adolescent Guys Face and Strategies to Help Them

It's tough to distinguish amongst youth-help books. Read enough, and they begin to sound the same. Yet Gerali's presentation is among the most helpful Christian guys' books I've read. He explains underlying issues of teen guys and offers a wealth of practical advice. Visually the book is appealing, with charts and sidebar comments. The sections are divided clearly by subject (i.e. growth spurts, homosexuality, suicide, etc.) for easy reference. The style is far more personal than academic, an easy read. Gerali is personal but not unlearned. He has a bone to pick with some Christian guy literature like Wild at Heart and the Every Man series. ("Every Young Man's Battle throws out the baby with the bath water," he writes.) Some of these bones are legitimate, and I appreciate his critical perspective of other voices. Be aware, however, that the "Guys and Sex" section itself (chapter 3.1) has some controversial parts: "We need to teach [teen] guys how to think sexually pure (by this I mean that they can think a lot about sex and still know that it's pure)." Gerali's perspective is a little more open, in my opinion, than the Bible presents. Still, he gives us something to think about. Overall, a valuable reference for anyone leading or raising teen guys. A helpful companion book: Raising Cain by Kindlon and Thompson.

It's amazing how much as youth workers we think we know about kids because of what we remember or because of what we observe. But unless you have a doctorate in adolescent issues, you probably don't know as much as you think. Steve Gerali does, and his research into the psychology, sociology, and physiology of teenage boys really has helped me understand the "why" behind a lot of the frustrating, interesting, and fun things the guys I work with do. More than that, however, it helps me understand what's happening in their hearts, minds, and bodies and how to work with them as a result of what's going on in there. Following the principles Gerali has laid out in this book really will help you work with teenage guys. Whether you're a parent or youth worker, this really is the closest thing you can find to an instruction manual for understanding and relating to the teenage guys in your life.

Working with teeange guys in junior high youth group at my church, local public schools, and every summer at camps counseling high school and junior high students, TEENAGE GUYS looked like a good book to add to my youth ministry bookshelf. And it was. And this should be on every youth worker's to-get list. Gerali uses tons of examples and stories from his personal experiences as a youth worker and trained psychologist to show the state of teenage guys today, and how they are interacting with the world. He covers a whole handful of issues including homosexuality, suicide, anger, suppressed emotions in guys, intelluctual development, guys and their fathers/mothers, and the spiritual development of teenage guys. Gerali goes everywhere with his topics - even into the heavy-handed, hardly-talked-about issues facing guys. The appendixes are incredibly helpful, going deeper into physiological changes in guys as well as listing out various sexual diseases and other physical problems they face. But Gerali doesn't just list out a bunch of problems - he talks about how to actually deal with them and help students find hope in Jesus. Don't pass this one up.