About that Boy Thing
Saturday, August 9, 2008 at 08:00AM In my post yesterday, I mentioned how Captain Underpants appeals to the "boy" in Jason. In an interesting bit of serendipity, I came across a Wall Street Journal article, Problem: Boys Don't Like to Read Solution: Books that are Really Gross:
But not everyone is happy with this "trend":Publishers are hawking more gory and gross books to appeal to an elusive market: boys -- many of whom would rather go to the dentist than crack open "Little House on the Prairie." Booksellers are also catering to teachers and parents desperate to make young males more literate.
"There has been a real revolution" in books that "have more kid appeal," especially when it comes to boys, says Ellie Berger, who oversees Scholastic's trade division. "It's a shift away from the drier books we all grew up with."
Jan Harp Domene, national president of the Parent Teacher Association, decries what she calls publishers' "shock tactics" to reach young males. She wants boys to read about the heroes of Greek mythology, the fantasy of Jules Verne and the antics of Tom Sawyer. "Does it all have to be blood and guts and gore?" she asks.And according the article, the answer is yes.
I always find it interesting in discussions about "why boys don't like to read", the biggest culprit usually winds up being that there are just not enough books that are interesting enough for boys. While I obviously believe that this can come into play and I do agree that being able to read books that are interesting is something that is critical for kids to develop an enjoyment of books, I also believe that there are many other factors involved.
Factors such as: being taught in ways that go against their natural learning style (such as pushing phonics with right-brained kids), pushing reading before a child is ready (which can be as late as 8 - 10 years old for right-brained kids), testing kids on what they have read, accelerated reading programs that assign points based on the difficulty of books and reward kids with prizes, only valuing physical reading and not "counting" audio books, and making reading "required" (by requiring a certain number of minutes, forcing kids to read out loud or by making kids finish books that they do not like). You can read more about my take on "required reading" from this earlier post.
One of the things that I find interesting is that, despite my earlier post about using Captain Underpants to encourage Jason to read...I would definitely not consider Jason a "reluctant reader". He absolutely loves and devours books. His preference however is either for me to read out loud or audio books. So my using Captain Underpants was to encourage him to physically read a book...not to get him interested in books in general.
Jason's main reason for not wanting to sit and read a book is that he finds it a bit boring to sit still so long...when he is listening to a book, he can also being doing something else such as building with his legos and playing with clay. He is an active kid and loves to be moving. When he was younger our read aloud times were spent with me reading on the couch and him flinging himself off it or jumping on our mini-trampoline. Or if we were in his room, he would take a huge running leap and freefall onto the bed. And yes, he completely was able to follow and understand.
Jason also says that he enjoys listening to books more because it is easier to "see" the book. As a right-brained learner, he thinks in pictures and, especially when he first started reading, decoding the words can sometimes interfere with his visualization of the book. He is actually a very strong reader and can read almost anything, but he does prefer highly visual books to make the "catching the visual" easier.
Now here is the interesting thing. Jason does not only enjoy "boy" books. If you look at his Book Ratings (which we need to update!) you will see that he rated The Secret Garden as an "A - Great". I read Little House on the Prairie when Jason was younger and he enjoyed it. Both boys also enjoyed The Higher Power of Lucky (which has a girl protagonist and had nothing to do with shooting or blowing anything up). It really does not matter much if the protagonist is a girl...he is more interested in the whether the story is interesting. His repertoire includes lots of fantasy, classics and award winning books as well as graphic novels and comic books.
I really feel that it has been our use of audio books combined with my valuing his choices in reading that has fostered his love of books. His use of audio books allowed him to satiate his desire for good stories and develop a wonderful relationship with reading, even as a "late" reader.
So yes, I do use "boy" books to encourage him to sit and physically read a book. And also sometimes to capture his interest in more academic areas (such as Murderous Maths and Horrible Histories). And yes, he does love gross stuff. And funny stuff. And interesting stuff. Luckily I do not need to do anything to encourage him in devouring books in other ways. He is incredibly open to books that I pick up. And yes, he has even chosen for me to read a book rather than play a video game.
Reader Comments (7)
James rarely reads independently (though he can), but he listens to a variety of books. I think maybe it's because he needs to keep his hands and eyes busy when he "reads" (he's not a sit down and look at a book kind of kid). I'll have to check out Jason's ratings for new book ideas.
Thanks for putting this into words!! I'd never really thought all the way through it, like that. My right-brained son will listen to most anything if I read it aloud (I mean if it is at least decently interesting. Doesn't matter who the protagonist is, or what genre the book is. But for his own personal reading, he does tend to gravitate toward the spooky, sci-fi, gross-out, or humor books. The "boy" books, I guess you might say. So interesting!
Hi,
I grew up as a reluctant reader. Now I write action-adventures & mysteries, especially for boys 8 and up, that kids hate to put down. My web site is at http://www.maxbooks.9k.com and my Books for Boys blog is at http://booksandboys.blogspot.com
Ranked by Accelerated Reader
Max Elliot Anderson
In our house, a key to having a boy who's interested in Greek myths (as if they're not bloody or gory - ha!) and classic science fiction (Jules Verne among others) is that my husband and I (and my husband gets a lot of credit for this, in particular) share our own enjoyment of these stories. We say things like, "Oh, you know what's cool about story X..." which lets both our kids (boy and girl) know that we think the stories are interesting, fun, and just plain cool. We still read to our kids, so we get to share the stories they're interested in.
My husband loves to read his favorite classics to the kids. He also likes to watch classic Star Trek and Dr. Who, the ones with the cheesy special effects, and talk about the plot and characters and why he likes the storyline in a particular episode and how it relates to other episodes that came before and after it. They pause the Tivo or DVD so the kids can ask questions or so he can help explain a complication in the plot. He's also got them hooked on comic books of all kinds, from Thor to Groo to the Fantastic Four.
What's funny about all of this is that I was the English major, but my husband is the story guy in our family. Big time.
I think in a lot of families, kids are expected to just naturally like to read alone and like to read what someone else thinks they should be reading. For some kids, that works. But other kids, like your son, don't want to sit still and read by themselves. And they often don't want someone else to tell them what to read. What better way to keep kids interested in stories than to read what they're reading and talk to them about it? But I'm not sure how many parents make the time anymore to keep nurturing their children's interest in a good story, no matter what the delivery medium, once they're in school and are reading independently.
And as much as our son likes Captain Underpants for its potty humor, he also likes more officially acceptable "literature" for his age. But mostly, he wants someone to read with him or watch a TV show or movie with him. He wants our time. And I think it's because we've spent the time with him and shared our enthusiasm with him, that he still likes all kinds of stories, ones with fart jokes and gore and ones without.
P.S. I forgot to mention how much I enjoy reading your posts about right-brained learners. They're a huge help to us with our right-brained kid. Thanks!
Your post made me think about an article I once read about Terry Pratchett in which he said that he had learned to accept that his books were "good for getting boys to read". You could just imagine the look on his face :-)
And I think you make a lot of good points, as does Lori. In relation to her comment about kids wanting us to read with them, I recall that recently my mom commented negatively when we were visiting and I went off to read to Tigger at bedtime (she is now 11 so she might have been 9 then?). She said "isn't she gettting a bit old for that?" It was one of those things my mother says that I decided was best left unanswered. But it makes me wonder if there is a more widespread belief that reading to kids (or with kids) is something that you do when they are little and once they get bigger they "should" be reading to themselves. Maybe we need a campaign like those they run to encourage people to read to babies to encourage people to keep reading to their older kids. :-)
Lori...I think you make a good point...I am sure that my enthusiasm for books rubs off on them even if they have a different way of enjoying them (I would have loved nothing better than to curl up with a good book all day long). I get excited and keep track of the new books that are coming out. I love to read the kid lit blogs and find author websites to find out more about what is going on and I share all this with them. It is bound to be contagious.
JoVE - I have heard folks say that before...I wonder if it goes along with the wanting kids to be "independent" kind of thing in our (well, at least here in the US) culture. We push they so quickly away (preschool at 2 or 3) only to wonder why our teens are not very close to us. It is my hope that my kids will love being read to for many years to come. It definitely is not a chore...it is one of the perks of parenting!