The Boys | Hardback Book

• By Lauren Ace and Jenny Lovlie
  
• 26.7cm × 26.6 cm
• Non-rhyming
• Hardback picture book
  
• Main themes: Friendship, boy lead, growing up, individuality
  
• Inclusions: Racial diversity, same-sex relationships, Australian, fatherhood
  

The Boys is a beautiful book about friendship, learning who you are as an individual, and growing up. The story centres around four little boys - Tam, Rey, Nattie, and Bobby - who start out as babies playing on the beach and grow into fast friends.

Each boy has his own skills and they support and love each other. Their friendship ebbs and flows as they each branch out to explore their individuality, particularly when they reach their teens, but the boys' friendship is the one constant they can all turn to through their lives. The book ends with the boys grown into men, some in relationships and some with children of their own, playing at the same beach they enjoyed as kids. 

The Boys features beautiful illustrations and while not clearly set in Australia, it could easily be an Australian beach that is depicted. This is a hardcover book with a linen feel front and back cover. There is racial diversity amongst the boys and a same-sex relationship is depicted but is not a key focus of the book.