The Last Boys Picked: Helping Boys Who Don’t Play Sports Survive Bullies and Boyhood

Psychologist Edgette is the mother of Jake, who, unlike his brothers and peers, simply did not enjoy sports. The talents and aptitudes of boys like Jake for other kinds of activities often go unrecognized, she says, because not only are they excluded from the popular crowd, their sexuality is called into question and bullying ensues. When she began writing this seven years ago, the Boy’s Movement was at its nascence, geek chic had yet to fully evidence itself, and nonathletic boys were overlooked by peers, teachers, coaches, and parents. She believes, however, that the problem persists, despite those movements, and that the remedy is for adults to step up and change the rules, challenging the status quo and applauding and encouraging the boys (and men) whose social skills are not formed on the playing field. In order to be effective, a parent can follow her instructions and stop the cycle of boy-against-boy aggression by exposing and making explicit the covert dynamics lurking behind certain bullying behaviors, but her approach follows the now familiar antibullying protocols being adopted in schools and on teams. While this is certainly an issue parents will encounter, and this book’s straight talk will help some moms and dads, a magazine feature would have sufficed. (Sept.)