Stories for boys who dare to be different

My six year old grandnephew is charming, fun to be with, a great conversationalist and very bright. A world of possibilities lies in front of him, but he will never be an All Black.

He has brittle bones (Osteogenisis imperfecta is a rare hereditary condition in which abnormal connective tissue development leads to fragile bones which are broken easily).

Some of his favourite things are science, flowers, baby animals, computer coding and unicorns. And his favourite colour is pink.

In Stories for Boys who Dare to be Different (true tales of amazing boys who changed the world without killing dragons) he will find some inspirational role models.

The stories are very short and each is accompanied by a full page comic style portrait by illustrator Quinton Winter which makes it an attractive read.

Ben Brooks wrote this book because he felt there was a real need for stories about a more diverse cast of men so that every boy can have someone to look up to and emulate. And to help boys to understand that men can be gentle, creative and emotional. It is perfectly fine to bury your nose in a book rather than play team sports. And being part of the rainbow community or belonging to another culture or ethnicity than other children in the class is normal.

When they grew up these men who dared to be different made their mark in many different fields and became famous sportsmen, writers, scientists, artists, musicians and environmentalists.

Amongst them was Barack Obama (they said there would never be a black president but he proved them wrong), Steve Irwin the crocodile hunter with a passion for conservation, Nick Vujici who was born without arms or legs yet became the first person to do 360-degrees spins on a surfboard, and Stephen Hawking who refused to let the debilitating disease ALS stop him from becoming the world’s most famous cosmologist.

Some had happy childhoods, others were marred by abuse. Who would have guessed when listening to Beethoven’s beautiful music that he used to be badly beaten by his father. He also had dyslexia which meant he struggled with words

It is some of the stories about lesser known boys which I especially enjoyed and look forward to sharing with my grandnephew.

Sixteen year old Boyan Slat was on a family holiday in Greece when he dived into the ocean expecting to see shoals of exotic fish. He was appalled that all he could see were massive amounts of plastic rubbish.  He set himself the challenge of inventing an ocean cleaner that could drift along the currents and collect up plastic as the seawater passed through it. It is so effective that In 2014 he became the youngest person ever to be given the title “Champion of the earth”.

When Ryan Hreljac was 6 years old his teacher taught a lesson about the many people in Africa ,especially children, who get sick and die because they have no access to clean water. He wanted to help them and raised money by doing jobs around the house.  When he grew up he created a Charity: Ryan’s Well Foundation which has helped 900,000 people in Africa get clean water.

There are some stories which might best be left until my grandnephew is a little older as they are just so sad or too complicated, such as Alan Turing’s story. This brilliant scientist who, during World War Two, helped the government break the Enigma code by building a machine called ‘The Bombe’ that may well have saved millions of lives. But he was later arrested because he was gay and forced to choose between jail and drugs. He chose drugs which made him feel so sick he committed suicide.

Although homosexuality has been decriminalised boys who are gay, bisexual or transgender are often bullied at school which leads to depression and even suicide. This is so prevalent in New Zealnd that it has been called a mental health crisis.

This is why I think Stories for Boys who Dare to be Different is not just for boys who feel they are different but for all other children too to help to broaden their horizons, move beyond the stereotypical idea of male masculinity and to become more tolerant and appreciate differences. And that’s really necessary.

I rather think my six year old grandnephew got it right when he said the other day:

“I like it when people are different because it’s boring when everyone’s the same”

Title: Stories for Boys who Dare to be Different .Author: Ben Brooks. Publisher: Hachette RRP: $ 39.99

Reviews by Lyn Potter. Read more by Lyn here.