Book excerpt: If you are a mother raising a son without a father, or a father who is no longer in the home with his son, this book was written for you.Do you know the 5 major diseases and ailments that your son is more likely to acquire without his father (or a suitable male role model) in his life?Do you know the 4 critical skills that a father can teach his son that a mother cannot teach?Do you know the 4 characteristics that adult sons without fathers possess that put them at a disadvantage in developing relationships? These questions-and many more-are answered in this book.Whether they lose their fathers to divorce or death, or whether their fathers go to prison or abandon them at birth, or were simply never in the picture-such as in artificial insemination-boys that grow up in homes without their biological father go through childhood at a disadvantage. There are almost 9 million such sons in America. The authors believe that mothers can overcome those disadvantages with effective parenting tailored to their sons' needs. The authors are convinced that most mothers want to do what is right for their sons, and if that does not always occur, it is usually because they do not always have the right information at their fingertips. Specifically, this book was written for:?Single mothers who are raising sons without a father?Fathers of sons who are no longer in the home?Married parents contemplating divorce?Mothers with sons who have remarried?Lesbian mothers who are raising a son?Adoptive parents who are raising a son Most self-help parenting books are "bucket brigade" manuals that are written to help parents put out the fires that arise in the normal course of parenting a child. The authors do that, too, with the problems that are specific to fatherless boys, but their major focus is teaching skills that will help mothers prevent problems from ever developing.