Given the peculiar storm of outrage surrounding this book, I actually bought a copy, and have read through it. I can testify that the book is a completely, earnestly, anodyne production that does its best to orient boys to puberty in an age-appropriate manner. It does a pretty good job of it, though of course any parent would probably want to take a look at it before passing it on to a boy, just to confirm that it was in accord with that family's attitudes.

However, I can also testify that most of the people who have written negative reviews, here and elsewhere, display a shameless lack of integrity, energetically bearing false witness about something they have not even read, claiming as justification one sentence on one page, which they have passed around in utter isolation from the rest of the book, of which they have demonstrably no knowledge whatsoever. You can see that very few of the negative reviews some from people who have bought the book, and none of them address the 12-word sentence in context, nor the book as a whole. This utterly contemptible behavior is, unfortunately, all too common.

Even more unfortunately, the publishers seem to have demonstrated a complete inability to stand up to the bullying of liars and fools, and have pulped every copy they could. No doubt this was a purely commercial decision, reacting to the threat of a spoiled brand. A more honorable course might have been to defend the work and the author. If this decision caused the rights to revert to the author, he might consider putting the text up in PDF form for everyone to see; if it was work for hire, and the rights remain with the publisher, they might themselves consider doing so. ( )