This book can literally save your son's life. 'Back in the day' as a young man growing up in Chicago. When we reached the ages of 13 through 16 years old our mothers would go to the men in our neighborhood (husbands, boyfriends, uncles or men-friends) and ask them to give us 'The Man Talk'. They would tell the men that we had started 'smelling ourselves' (that's the 'Old School' way of saying, "Thinking that we were grown"). 'The Man Talk' consisted of the 'Life Lessons' that these men would share with us to positively guide us into manhood. Lessons that had been passed down from their fathers and grandfathers. A "Rites of Passage" if you will. These lessons I now share with other young men. Today's youth have missed this gravely important step in their life cycles. Blame it on the Hip Hop Culture. Blame it on fathers not being in the home. Blame it on mothers. Blame it on drugs. Blame it on gangs. Blame it on schools. Blame it on an unjust system. Blame it on the police. It doesn't matter. Our young boys of color are dying in the streets. Whether shot down by a bullet from the gun of a cop that doesn't value the lives of black boys. Or a young gansta' that doesn't value the life of black boys. Dead is dead. If you are the parent or guardian of a young male teen (especially young black males) that's influenced by urban culture, I highly recommend this book to help guide him through the trials and tribulations of transitioning from 'boyhood to manhood'. This book will do the one thing that parents and guardians want most of all...bring their sons home alive. This I can promise. This I can just about guarantee. I'm living proof of it.