I am often asked whether this book has anything to offer young women. My answer is always a resounding, "Yes!" The first and simplest reason is because most of the advice in the book is gender-neutral. After all, when we talk about things like compassion, faith, integrity, bullying and moral courage, we are speaking to the reader's humanity, not their sex.

Second, while my primary reason for writing A Better Man stemmed from my frustration with the cultural challenges facing young men, I am painfully aware of how hard it is to be a girl these days. I think of my daughter and how challenging it is for her and her friends to find their way in a world that too often seeks to define them - and their worth - in purely physical terms. (And with that, I've just scratched the surface.)

In other words, A Better Man was not written in a vacuum. The reality is that the futures of our young men and our young women are inextricably intertwined: they will rise or fall together. To the extent we are complacent in nurturing one, we are complicit in the consequences that will inevitably flow to the other. So, while it is true that I wrote A Better Man "for" boys, I did not write it solely for them. I wrote it also because I want our girls to hear what good men have to say about relationships, about the respect men owe to women, about fatherhood, compassion, faith, integrity, and the like. I want them to see that good men — very good men of compassion, courage, humor and intelligence really do exist. But most of all, I want them to know that when it comes to the men in their own lives, when it comes to choosing boyfriends, husbands and even their male friends, they have the right to set the bar high.