In this series, William Dean Howells delightfully describes the early years of his life, in the "Boy's Town" of Ohio, the state where he was born and raised. These stories remain as a vivid autobiographical records and colorful images of a life in the mid-nineteenth century American town. Extract: "If there was any fellow in the Boy's Town fifty years ago who had a good reason to run off it was Pony Baker. Pony was not his real name; it was what the boys called him, because there were so many fellows who had to be told apart, as Big Joe and Little Joe, and Big John and Little John, and Big Bill and Little Bill, that they got tired of telling boys apart that way; and after one of the boys called him Pony Baker, so that you could know him from his cousin Frank Baker, nobody ever called him anything else." William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was an American realist author, literary critic, and playwright. Nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters", he was particularly known for his tenure as editor of the Atlantic Monthly as well as his own prolific writings, including the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day", and the novels The Rise of Silas Lapham and A Traveler from Altruria. Howells is known to be the father of American realism, and a denouncer of the sentimental novel. He was the first American author to bring a realist aesthetic to the literature of the United States. His stories of Boston upper crust life set in the 1850s are highly regarded among scholars of American fiction.

Considers legislation allowing the use of deserted military installations for juvenile delinquent rehabilitation camps. Focuses on Boys Town, Mass., and the Charles Hayden Goodwill Inn for Boys, Boston, Mass.

This is the tale of Edward Flanagan, a young Irish lad shepherding a flock of sheep on a farm in Ballymoe, who became the famed Father Flanagan, founder of America's Boys Town, guardian of thousands of orphaned, neglected, and abandoned boys, and advisor to presidents. From a large Irish family, Flanagan suffered through ill health and setbacks to pursue his desire to join the priesthood. Following his older brother and fellow priest to the plains of Nebraska, he served several parishes and opened a hotel for homeless men before finding his life's mission to care for and give a voice to young boys whom society had despaired of and cast aside. Father Flanagan opened his home in 1917 for boys of any race and creed. In this definitive biography, the authors recount his struggles with drought, fire, lack of funds, and skeptical citizens to create a safe haven for these boys. He welcomed Hollywood to Boys Town to recount his story in two films, sent off scores of his boys to do battle in World War II, and toured the orphanages of Asia and Europe to report on the needs of children victimized by that war. At the time of his death in 1948, Father Flanagan was seen as one of the world's foremost advocates for children, especially those without parents or relatives to care for them and those judged guilty of some crime and locked away in reform schools or prisons. The legacy of Father Flanagan is one that inspires all who care for the welfare of children today.

This carefully crafted ebook: "THE FLIGHT OF PONY BAKER: A Boy's Town Story (Illustrated)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. The Flight of Pony Baker is a novel for children which tells the story of a young boy named Pony Baker who, throughout the book, attempts to run away from his home where he lives with his mother, father, and five sisters. The setting of the story is "fifty years ago" in the Boy's Town of Ohio, the state where Howells was born and raised. Pony lives in the Boy's Town with his mother, father, and five sisters, whom his mother always wants him to play with. Pony's mother is very overprotective of Pony, which makes her a bad mother when it comes to having fun. Pony's father has done some things that have given Pony the right to run away as well. An older boy named Jim Leonard suggests that Pony go with the Indians and that the Indians would like him and then adopt him into their tribe. Extract: "If there was any fellow in the Boy's Town fifty years ago who had a good reason to run off it was Pony Baker. Pony was not his real name; it was what the boys called him, because there were so many fellows who had to be told apart, as Big Joe and Little Joe, and Big John and Little John, and Big Bill and Little Bill, that they got tired of telling boys apart that way; and after one of the boys called him Pony Baker, so that you could know him from his cousin Frank Baker, nobody ever called him anything else." William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was an American realist author, literary critic, and playwright.

Boys' Life is the official youth magazine for the Boy Scouts of America. Published since 1911, it contains a proven mix of news, nature, sports, history, fiction, science, comics, and Scouting.

Boys' Life is the official youth magazine for the Boy Scouts of America. Published since 1911, it contains a proven mix of news, nature, sports, history, fiction, science, comics, and Scouting.

Will boys be boys? What are little boys made of? Kenneth B. Kidd responds to these familiar questions with a thorough review of boy culture in America since the late nineteenth century. From the "boy work" promoted by character-building organizations such as Scouting and 4-H to current therapeutic and pop psychological obsessions with children's self-esteem, Kidd presents the great variety of cultural influences on the changing notion of boyhood.Kidd finds that the education and supervision of boys in the United States have been shaped by the collaboration of two seemingly conflictive approaches. In 1916, Henry William Gibson, a leader of the YMCA, created the term boyology, which came to refer to professional writing about the biological and social development of boys. At the same time, the feral tale, with its roots in myth and folklore, emphasized boys' wild nature, epitomized by such classic protagonists as Mowgli in The Jungle Books and Huck Finn. From the tension between these two perspectives evolved society's perception of what makes a "good boy": from the responsible son asserting his independence from his father in the late 1800s, to the idealized, sexually confident, and psychologically healthy youth of today. The image of the savage child, raised by wolves, has been tamed and transformed into a model of white, middle-class masculinity.Analyzing icons of boyhood and maleness from Father Flanagan's Boys Town and Max in Where the Wild Things Are to Elin Gonzlez and even Michael Jackson, Kidd surveys films, psychoanalytic case studies, parenting manuals, historical accounts of the discoveries of "wolf-boys," and self-help books to provide a rigorous history of what it has meant to be an all-American boy.Kenneth B. Kidd is assistant professor of English at the University of Florida and associate director of the Center for Children's Literature and Culture.