Big Boys Cry

It’s Billy’s seventh birthday and no one is more excited than he is to finally be a big boy! At the park later that day, Billy finds himself in tears after getting hurt in a small accident. When a passing stranger scolds him, telling him that ‘Big Boys don’t cry - only silly ones do’, Billy questions what it means to be a big boy. Thankfully, Mum and Dad and some new friends help Billy understand that crying is normal and that everyone does it, including some of Billy’s favourite and most admired members of his family.

For many boys today, there is a fear that expressing emotion is seen as a sign of weakness. This only becomes more evident as they move from boyhood into adolescence.

This book helps parents frame emotions in a positive light, normalising the idea that all boys cry, whether they are seven years old, in the armed forces, a fireman or a father – all big boys cry, it does not make them silly!