Good Friends, Bad Friends - The Reader ( Ages 15-19) | Brotherhood Character Series

In the next five years his life will largely be decided — and not by his brains or his talent. It will be decided by who he walks with.

Two boys leave the same school with the same results. Ten years later one is building something and the other is on a veranda outside a betting shop. Trace it back and you nearly always find the same thing: it began with a circle, and neither of them ever sat down and chose it.

This book follows Kizza from seventeen. He counts the cost of a betting shop. He holds a line when men question whether he is a man at all. He walks away from a friend he has known since he was twelve and it hurts for months. He deliberately finds an older man to learn from. And years later, when the friend he left comes back in trouble, he has to decide what a man actually does.

Everything runs through one plan a young man can use in the moment — in a room, on a veranda, in a car, when a friend says “just this once.” It spells CHECK:

C — Count the Cost. Where does this road actually end?

H — Hold the Line. No. Without apology, without argument.

E — Exit. Leave the room, or leave the friendship.

C — Counsel. Bring in a man who is further ahead than you.

K — Keep and Build. Choose your circle deliberately. Then be worth being in it.

This is a working book, not a book to read once and shelve. Eight chapters, each with an Action Plan, Words to Stand On, and a full notes page where he writes his own conclusions — with a space at the bottom for a parent, guardian or mentor to sign and comment. It closes with the CHECK Covenant, read aloud, and a My Journey page he completes and signs.

He will be asked to write down: the five men he spends most time with and where each one is realistically heading in five years — then what that says about where he is heading. Most young men have never done that sum on paper.

Written in plain, direct, man-to-man language with full-colour illustrations. Used inside The Boys’ Mentorship Programme’s camps and online mentorship across Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Kenya and Nigeria.

Note that this Book must not be read alone. It must have a facilitator guiding you on every step.

Format: PDF, 33 pages, instant download. Read on phone, tablet or laptop — or print it, because he is meant to write in it.

Best for: Young men 15–19, fathers, mothers, mentors, teachers, school counsellors and chaplains.

Do not only look for good friends. Become one.