For years we’ve been hearing the mantra ‘boys don’t read.’ Sometimes I wonder if this attitude isn’t perpetuated by such comments and assumptions.
What is necessary to grow a male reader? One is having books read to them from the time they are born. I mean a wide variety of books, not just those considered ‘boy books.’ Another is having a reading example especially from their father or other men.
I taught our son to read before school. Quite simply he was ready. He’d experienced the pleasure to be had from reading a book as he listened to myriad stories. A word of advice here – don’t stop reading to them when they are old enough to read themselves. This is true for parents and for teachers.
At school I, along with my class, loved it when teachers read a story. Parents and teachers, let’s see what we can do to make our boys readers by reading to them as much as possible, not as texts to study but just for the sheer enjoyment of reading.
The other thing that helped our son grow into a reader was he learned by example. He watched his father and me reading. Seeing a father who reads is an invaluable role model for boys, as is growing up with a house filled with books and an active library membership.
Don’t assume boys will only read book by male authors with male characters. Author Kirsty Murray said ‘boys who read, who are genuinely literate, read regardless of who is the author of the book.’
Another found her sons read and enjoyed the Laura Ingall’s Wilder, Little House on the Prairie books as well as those by Terry Pratchett, Mark Twain and Rudyard Kipling. That was certainly my experience too. My son, who was an avid reader as a child and teenager and still is, wanted a good book. He didn’t care if the character was male or female as long as it was a good story. Growing up he read The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Treasure Island, Gulliver’s Travels, Call of the Wild, Storm Boy, myriad books about King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table, all the Frank Baum Oz books, every Hardy Boys mystery he could lay his hands on and also the Nancy Drew series.
As a young teenager he read books by male authors but also books by Joan Phipson, Eleanor Spence, Margaret Paice, Cynthia Voight and others with female lead characters. It was not uncommon for him and I to read the same book and then talk about the characters and the story, at least until the time he started reading Stephen King, at which point I left him to it.
It helped that he had an avid reader for a father too. My husband reads war histories, Wilbur Smith, Deighton, Le Carre, Fredrick Forsythe, Terry Pratchett, and endless fantasy – his favourites being the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series. However he also reads books I’ve read and enjoyed – all of Fannie Flagg’s novels starting with Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Café, a couple of Marika Cobbold novels and several Jane Austen.
So to get them reading and keep them reading read to them, read widely and give them an example of reading. Follow these principles and you’ll have more chance of growing a male reader and improving his education.
Related blogs
The Most Vital Thing You Can Do for Your Child’s Education
Should You Teach Your Child to Read before They Go to School?