Consider the following scenarios:
- I had a student several years ago read all of Grace Lin’s books – Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Year of the Dog and Year of the Rat. The student even created a book trailer, along with several classmates, for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon as they loved it so much.
- Several former students have devoured The Maze Runner in their quest to read all of the dystopian fiction that they can.
- Kate Messner’s Eye of the Storm has been most popular with the boys in my class even though the protagonist, Jaden, is a girl.
Now consider that the student in the first scenario is a boy and in the second scenario, a group of girls. Imagine how different these scenarios would have been had I pegged these “boy” or “girl” books in class discussion or in book-talking.
I recently perused the Goodreads shelves, and out of curiosity and spurred by some Twitter discussion, I searched for “boy books.” The results came back with 3,687 books. This is not isolated to a book-related social site, however. I have heard this come up in conversations on-line, on blogs and in articles.
I propose that pigeon-holing books as “boy books” or “girl books” is both alarming and harmful to children and their reading development. However, I think it is especially harmful to boys because it makes a statement to them that there are only certain books that they should read. Instead of narrowing the scope, we should be widening it, encouraging students to read out of their comfort zone and to challenge themselves with different types of literature.
Instead of using sweeping generalizations, I think it is critical that we work to match the book to the student, challenging us to really know both the child and middle-grade and young adult books. Instead of placing gender specifications on books, why don’t we say, “Johnny, I know that you really like adventure. This book has a ton of action and is fast-paced. I think you’re going to like the characters; they’re funny and get into a lot of trouble.” OR “Johnny, I see that you recently read Freak, the Mighty. I’m going to suggest Year of the Dog because it also features a special friendship.”
I am not venturing to say that there are not some differences between boy and girl readers, their interests and their reading styles. I am saying, though, that we need to look at the individual child and what the individual child needs as a reader. We need to keep as many pathways open for our readers as possible. Gender specifications close doors to these pathways. Using language that speaks to the books themselves versus generalized classifications and truly knowing our readers, their tastes and what will challenge them will open doors to literacy, enjoyment, and engagement in reading.
Hi Jen,
I found your post because I have a Google Alert for “books for boys.” Kid’s reading and especially boy’s reading has been an interest of mine for years. And now that I’m writing books, I’m learning as much as I can about it.
So I agree with your post—mostly. Boys don’t read. Not all, of course, but way too many. I don’t understand this. I lived in the library as a boy, and read everything, except girl books. And there were tons of books for boys then (the fifties). Unfortunately, more for boys than girls, but girls had no problem reading “boy books” and still don’t. But too many of these books were sexist and racist (I was shocked to recently re-read the original Hardy Boys) and most written by men. Thank goodness that has changed. Now the pendulum has swung the other way. More books for girls, especially in YA, written by women, and in my reading experience, the girl characters are braver and smarter. Hermione and Annie in The Magic Treehouse as examples. And that’s good. Girls need strong role models. But boys do too, and there seems to be fewer of them. The reason being, I believe, is that the publishers push the girl books because they sell better. Many of the books that boys would like have a girl on the cover which, I suspect, limits the number of boys who will pick it up. I’m against the “pigeon-holing” you mentioned and certainly don’t want to limit boys to so-called boy books, but some boys need to be “grabbed” by the title or cover. I don’t worry about the good readers. If encouraged, they’ll read anything. It’s the reluctant boy readers I’m concerned about. And I think they need a “boy book’ to get them started.
I’m trying to write a series of adventure books for boys. They will be realistic historical fiction and I may have to self publish them. I’ve talked to several editors and agents who tell me there’s is no market for that type of book. That was my favorite genre growing up, and I think boys would still like them. I had one editor tell me to add time travel and a girl protagonist. No, that’s not why I’m spending my retirement working ten hours a day learning to write and promote. I want boys, all boys, to enjoy reading as much as I did. And I don’t want to diminish girl’s opportunities in any way. Can’t this be done? Two women, Jo Rowling and Suzanne Collins, seemed to do it with books boys and girls liked, but there aren’t enough books that entice boys.
Sorry for the babbling. I’m confused about all this, as you can tell. But I passionately want to help boys read. I tell stories in the local schools, and buy my grandsons tons of books (my granddaughters too). I post Facebook and Twitter posts about reading and boy books, and I write. I would appreciate any of your suggestions. And if you ever want to read any of my stories let me know by email. I give free ebooks to teachers and librarians.
Thanks for what you do. Teachers are my heroes.
Ben
Thanks so much for stopping by and joining the discussion. I absolutely agree that, at time, books are marketed in a way that can seem exclusionary to boys. A lot of studies have said that boys skip from MG books straight to adult, skipping the YA genre altogether. This is where I think a teacher’s knowledge of books really comes into play. Understanding what each book is about and then being able to promote that to students and their individual tastes is essential and critical to building literacy.
I definitely think that there are some books that have more “boy appeal” than others, and that’s great! Certainly books are going to find different audiences. I just try to keep the “boy book” language out of my classroom so that all books get an even playing field, if that makes sense.
It is wonderful that you are so passionate about boys reading. Best of luck with your writing!
I think this is such an important issue. We shouldn’t impose our ideas about gender roles on our students. Well said, Jen!
Thanks, Linda! I agree that it is an important issue and is definitely one that I feel passionate about. As teachers, we want all of our students to love books and embrace reading. I think it is a case of matching the right book with the right reader and not using exclusionary language when talking about books. I appreciate your insight!
Thanks Jen. I see many teachers and librarians who like you work hard to match the kids with the right book. Often they don’t get help from parents, especially the fathers. The men need to step up.
Parents definitely play an integral role in literacy. They need to be reading role-models for their kids and show that reading is something life-long, not just something you do for school.