Boys who don't play sports are often the targets of bullying, but a boy's worst bully may be the one he can't see: society's expectations about how he should act, how he should relate, and how he should play. Overlooked by a society that reinforces impossible standards of "masculinity," boys who are uninterested in competitive sports or have non-aggressive personalities are often vilified and bullied for being different as they grow up in the shadow of America's obsession with bigger, faster, richer, and stronger. Through a fascinating assortment of in-depth interviews, clinical case studies, and examples from popular literature, Dr. Janet Sasson Edgette and Beth Margolis Rupp illustrate how these boys are relegated to a second-class social status simply because they can't make a free throw or because they can spell better than they can run. Compassionate, empowering, and instructive, The Last Boys Picked will help parents, teachers, coaches, and caregivers identify the social and emotional hurdles that these boys face. It offers specific action steps to help any child build resilience and a healthy self-esteem-and tips for talking to them about their experiences and teaching them to face the schoolyard-and the world-with confidence.

A USA Today Bestseller! Standing between you and the man you CAN be is one thing: The Mask of Masculinity. Lewis Howes grew up as an athlete. He was a two-sport All-American, played almost every sport in high school, and went on to play football professionally. Howes then transferred his competitive nature from sports to business, building his podcast, “The School of Greatness,” into a global phenomenon and becoming successful beyond his wildest dreams. But his whole identity was built on misguided beliefs aboutwhat “masculinity” was: dangerous, false ideas learned from teammates and coaches in locker rooms and stereotypes in the media. Like so many men, Howes grew up to be angry, frustrated, and always chasing something that was never enough. At 30 years old, outwardly thriving but unfulfilled inside, Howes began a personal journey to find inner peace and to uncover the many masks that men—young and old—wear: by asking for advice from some of the world’s best psychologists, doctors, and household names like Tony Robbins, Alanis Morissette, and Ray Lewis. That journey created this book—a must read for every man, and for every woman who loves a man. In The Mask of Masculinity, Howes exposes the ultimate emptiness of the Material Mask, the man who chases wealth above all things; the cowering vulnerability that hides behind the Joker and Stoic Masks of men who never show real emotion; and the destructiveness of the Invincible and Aggressive Masks worn by men who take insane risks or can never back down from a fight. He teaches men how to break through the walls that hold them back and shows women how they can better understand the men in their lives. It’s not easy, but if you want to love, be loved, and live a great life, then it’s an odyssey of self-discovery that all modern men must make.

What started out as typical "boys will be boys" teasing and horseplay turned into a living nightmare for Kevin Kearns who learned that his once safe neighborhood turned into a war zone of bullies. Small for his age, and not as physically adept at playing sports as all the other boys in the neighborhood, Kevin was soon the kid who was always picked last for the ball games. Up at bat, he endured merciless teasing, dropping the ball in the outfield earned him the lasting derision of his teammates. "We'd be better off without him!" While some of the incidents seem shocking, bullying goes on everywhere. There is no such thing as "boys will be boys" if it excuses bullying behavior. After losing his father at a young age, Kevin felt adrift and alone...a perfect target for intensified bullying. His mother felt helpless. His teachers felt sorry for him. His uncle decided that he needed to learn to defend himself and enrolled Kevin in a martial arts program. The martial arts training certainly taught Kevin how to defend himself, but more importantly, it taught him what it meant to be successful at something. It developed his self-esteem and helped him to overcome the environment of bullying at school and at home. Kevin's early introduction into martial arts turned into a lifelong passion of personal and physical development. Today, Kevin is known as Coach Kearns to many people, among them UFC fighters who turn to Kevin to learn how to improve their skills. If you are being bullied, or know someone who is, Kevin's story serves as proof that there is a way out and that life after being bullied can be fulfilling and enduring.

David Benjamin's eponymous character in The Life and Times of the Last Kid Picked grew up in the era - between child labor and Little League - when parental disregard set kids free to devise and play their own games, make their own rules, argue their own disputed calls and roam free from dawn to darkness with absolutely no adult supervision. It was a time, between the end of World War II and the wholesale intrusion of parents into child's play, that Benjamin calls "free-lance childhood." It allowed a timid, bookish and intensely observant kid to explore the outdoors, range for miles on his bicycle, go fishing, go hunting, play baseball, football, soccer, go to the movies with a fellow rascal named Chucky Dutcher and get kicked out of high-school basketball games. This was an interval in American culture that has been overlooked by historians and sociologists alike. It comes to life in vivid and often hilarious microcosm, chronicled by a gifted and often lyrical writer.