About This Book
Reach for this book when your teenage son is navigating the choppy waters of puberty, feeling like an outsider, or starting to grapple with the complexities of romantic relationships and physical attraction. Tim Winton captures the authentic, often hilarious, and sometimes mortifying internal monologue of a fourteen-year-old boy trying to maintain his cool while his world shifts around him. Set against the backdrop of a new coastal town, the story follows Lockie Leonard as he balances the adrenaline of surfing with the pressures of being a cop's kid and the confusion of a first girlfriend who is moving faster than he is. It is a brilliant resource for normalizing the awkwardness of growing up and opening honest lines of communication about boundaries, peer pressure, and self-respect. While the tone is light and humorous, it treats the emotional life of boys with genuine dignity and depth.
