John Coy: Girls have reading down, but boys are losing interest
Worse, in important ways the publishing industry seems to have given up trying to give them books on subjects that interest them.
On a recent bookstore visit, a sign caught my eye: "Summer Reading for Teens." As an author of young adult novels, I was curious to see what books were selected for the table.
Fashionistas, mean girls, gossip girls, island girls, it girls, a whole sisterhood of traveling pants. Had I read the sign wrong? Was this the table of summer reading for girls? I checked the sign again: Summer Reading for Teens. I scanned the table. Where were the books for boys? Among the brightly colored covers, not a single book featured a male protagonist in a contemporary setting.
What would a male teen think about this table? Probably that summer reading didn't include him.
Just then a group of high school students came in with their teacher. A store employee greeted them and stood in front of the Summer Reading for Teens table. As she began talking about the books in the store, I watched the summer school students. Most of the girls were paying attention and looking over the books on the table. The boys' eyes were wandering elsewhere and most of them looked like they wanted to be somewhere -- anywhere -- else.
What message do we send boys when we load up a table of books for teens with titles that so many of them do not connect with? Is summer reading supposed to be fun? Do we assume that boys won't read for fun? Do we assume boys don't read -- period?
Years ago, I took a workshop from Jane Yolen, the acclaimed writer of books for children. She said, "We don't have enough books that reflect the genuine interests of boys." That was true 15 years ago. It is still true now.As a writer who visits many schools, I'm always stuck by the enthusiasm of students in a first-grade class who are learning to read. The marks on the page are a secret code: Excitement and concentration are evident as students decipher it. When they do, words and sentences appear and their world is altered forever
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On a recent bookstore visit, a sign caught my eye: "Summer Reading for Teens." As an author of young adult novels, I was curious to see what books were selected for the table.
Fashionistas, mean girls, gossip girls, island girls, it girls, a whole sisterhood of traveling pants. Had I read the sign wrong? Was this the table of summer reading for girls? I checked the sign again: Summer Reading for Teens. I scanned the table. Where were the books for boys? Among the brightly colored covers, not a single book featured a male protagonist in a contemporary setting.
What would a male teen think about this table? Probably that summer reading didn't include him.
Just then a group of high school students came in with their teacher. A store employee greeted them and stood in front of the Summer Reading for Teens table. As she began talking about the books in the store, I watched the summer school students. Most of the girls were paying attention and looking over the books on the table. The boys' eyes were wandering elsewhere and most of them looked like they wanted to be somewhere -- anywhere -- else.
What message do we send boys when we load up a table of books for teens with titles that so many of them do not connect with? Is summer reading supposed to be fun? Do we assume that boys won't read for fun? Do we assume boys don't read -- period?
Years ago, I took a workshop from Jane Yolen, the acclaimed writer of books for children. She said, "We don't have enough books that reflect the genuine interests of boys." That was true 15 years ago. It is still true now.
As a writer who visits many schools, I'm always stuck by the enthusiasm of students in a first-grade class who are learning to read. The marks on the page are a secret code: Excitement and concentration are evident as students decipher it. When they do, words and sentences appear and their world is altered forever.
Yet, if you see these same students four years later and ask them how they feel about reading, a number will say they don't like to read. Some of these fifth-graders will tell you directly that they hate reading. Of this last group, almost all are boys.
Think about this: If you tried to devise an educational system whose main goal was to change the enthusiasm of first-grade boys into a dislike of reading in four years, could you create a system more effective than the one we have now?
We have done boys a fundamental disservice by failing to publish more books that address their genuine interests. Go into any classroom and ask boys what they like to do. Make a list and then take that down to the library and see how many chapter books and novels you can find on these topics. The gap is huge