Wildhood

Wildhood is a revelatory investigation of human and animal adolescence and young adulthood from the New York Times bestselling authors of Zoobiquity.

Teenagers—behind the banter, the tediously repetitive games and cliques, the shouting and screaming, the fast living, and the strutting and preening—lie the rules of the entire animal kingdom.

Based on their popular Harvard University course, latest research, and worldwide travels, Natterson-Horowitz and Bowers examine the four universal challenges that every adolescent on our planet must face on the journey to adulthood: how to be safe, how to navigate hierarchy, how to court potential mates, and how to leave the nest. Safety, status, sex, and survival.

For parents and children, predators and prey alike, this is a powerfully revelatory book, entertainingly written. To become, as its reader does, for a while, a young penguin or a young humpback whale, or even an octopus tapping a shrimp on the shoulder or an orca silencing their victim, is a giddying experience. The authors open up horizons for their ordinary human readers as they go about their daily animal lives, and permit them to look afresh at the terrifying and exhilarating experience of adolescence. Even your average teen will not get bored.

"The authors steer clear of excesses of ethology or anthropomorphism, and they emphasise that maturity is not a goal but a process. A lucid, entertaining account of how creatures of many kinds learn to navigate the complex world that adulthood opens."
-Kirkus

"A life-changing perspective on adolescents. A treasure trove of scientific exploration and practical implications for how we understand and support youth."
-Daniel J. Siegel, MD, author of Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain

"Human teens have much in common with their counterparts throughout the animal kingdom - and those commonalities are eye-opening as described in the latest from biologist Natterson-Horowitz and science journalist Bowers. Reassuring ... should appeal to anyone who's ever raised an adolescent, human or otherwise." STARRED REVIEW
-Publishers Weekly