Schools often dismiss what boys like. No wonder they're not wild about reading.

It's not that boys can't read, they just don't. Study after study reveals that boys read less than girls. And according to the U.S. Department of Education, school-age boys tend to read a grade and a half lower than girls. How can librarians get guys to turn the page? For starters, we need to move beyond our traditional "here's a book you're going to love" approach. That strategy may work fine with some kids, but it's a tough sell to most boys. Consider, for a moment, the experience of one of my colleagues. She tried everything she could think of to encourage her son to read. But nothing worked. Finally, late one night, the boy noticed a light shining beneath his younger sister's bedroom door. "Why does she get to stay up past her bedtime?" he complained to his mother. Mom, quick on the draw, explained that his sister was reading her books in bed. "And there's no bedtime curfew when you're reading," she added. Now, her son stays up every evening, reading for hours. The lesson to be learned? If we want to transform boys into lifelong readers, we need to discover what makes them tick. Equally important, we need to have a better grasp of the kind of reading that attracts them.

What Boys (Really) Read

Boys read comic books, baseball cards, and cereal boxes. They are less likely to read books; and when they do, they often don't read the ones we want them to. There are many reasons for this, but the biggest one relates to role models. Boys identify with the men in their lives, and males, in general, don't read as many books as women. A 1996 study by Donald Pottorff, Deborah Phelps-Zientarski, and Michelle Skovera ("Gender Perceptions of Elementary and Middle School Students About Literacy at Home and School" in the Journal of Research and Development in Education) shows that mothers are 10 times more likely to read books than fathers. On the other hand, dads are 10 times more likely to read newspapers than moms. What's the significance of this? Developmentally, boys view the world as a place filled with rules and tools, and their job is to understand how it works in order to get things done. Newspapers, helpful how-to manuals, and other brief, informative texts address this need admirably. But they don't provide boys with the sustained, language-rich reading experiences they need to become mature readers. Boys also don't read books because we urge them to read the wrong ones. But it's not guys' tastes that are at fault. What boys like to read springs naturally from their experiences and reflects how their brains are wired. Michael Gurian, an educator and the author of Boys and Girls Learn Differently! A Guide for Teachers and Parents (Jossey-Bass, 2002), writes that boys' brains engage in less cross-hemisphere activity than girls'. In other words, boys use only half of their brain at any given time. That means that when boys read, they need an extra jolt of sound, color, motion, or some physical stimulation to get their brains up to speed. Given boys' internal wiring, is it surprising that they enjoy reading sports and adventure stories? Or fantasies, in which the hero is searching for his place in the world? Nonfiction titles also satisfy boys' innate desires to make sense of the universe and to test its boundaries. How do educators respond to the books that boys crave? For the most part, we dismiss them. In fact, we are far less respectful of boys' reading preferences than girls'. We insist that all children read books that foster internal reflection, that emphasize the emotional rather than the physical. We define "good" books as those that conform to the way girls think. And when teachers assign students to "read a book," nonfiction books are often off-limits—according to some educators, they're appropriate for strictly utilitarian tasks. As for the edgier selections that appeal to boys—books with gross humor or scary stories—well, school isn't an institution that encourages challenging what's socially acceptable. But the main reason why librarians and teachers often have so little respect for what boys like is that most of them are women—and guys' tastes don't appeal to them. "Wait," you may be objecting, "I stock my collection with lots of boy-appealing books." You may have Jon Scieszka's Time Warp Trio books (Viking), Gordon Korman's Son of the Mob (Hyperion, 2002), and Dav Pilkey's Captain Underpants series (Scholastic/Blue Sky). But respecting boys' tastes goes beyond simply possessing these books: it comes down to what you do with them. Do you actively promote these titles? Include them on your recommended reading lists? Present them when you booktalk? Read them to your classes? If most boy-friendly books never show up when you're discussing "good" books, boys will notice the omission. And they'll recognize the implication: books that are funny or action packed or fantasylike aren't any good. In other words, boys are attracted to substandard materials, and, therefore, reading is not for them. This is not a rebuke. Educators as a whole, both men and women, want boys to succeed as readers. We just don't always recognize the messages we're sending and what their effects are on the children we serve. The desire to get the best possible books into boys' hands is a perfectly honorable impulse. And since some boys may not read more than one book a year, we certainly don't want them wasting their time on Captain Underpants. But this is faulty reasoning. We need to realize that if boys read something that speaks to them, they are much more likely to read other books.

What Works?

Encouraging boys to read books that truly appeal to them is only half the battle. Good reading habits need to be ingrained, and that means reinforcing them in the classroom. But, all too often, what goes on in school makes boys uncomfortable. Think about a typical reading group for adults. Its members sit around in a circle, relating what they've read to their own lives and discussing characters' interpersonal relationships. Ever wonder why these groups are such a hit with women and not men? It's because they're sedentary, self-reflective, and designed to appeal to women. The similarities between adult book groups and classroom reading groups leave little doubt as to why boys are turned off to books and perform so poorly on reading tests. Now picture the ideal reading environment for boys—the public library's storyhour. Here, boys join their peers as well as some of the adults they love and respect—one of whom reads them an illustrated story. Boys are encouraged to get up and sing, and maybe even dance. Then it's time for a craft project that reinforces the story—an activity that leans heavily on boys' natural desires to build, create, and use tools to solve problems. For a guy, reading doesn't get any better than that. You can re-create storyhour in your own classroom or library—for kids of all ages. For instance, if you want to boost eighth-grade boys' reading comprehension, ask them to draw a scene from a story they've just read. And don't just give them a standard sheet of 8½" x 11" paper; use oversized flip-chart or butcher-block paper, or let them paint murals on large sheets of paper taped to the wall. Kids should also be encouraged to act out the stories. And allow students to create their own versions of a tale—writing themselves into it. A multisensory approach to reading gives boys a chance to respond to it in a concrete way, which, in turn, makes the process a lot more exciting. Physical activities also put the emphasis on plot—where the action is—rather than on character development and relationships, which are far more engaging to girls. Tailor your reading program to the things that boys like to do. Since boys enjoy sports, nonfiction books, and magazines, take advantage of events like the Olympics, the Little League World Series, or the NCAA basketball tournament. Construct a bulletin board or map and have your students collect and post articles about the participants. As the competition unfolds, students can add more in-depth articles about the winners to the display. This is an easy way to make your lessons current, engaging, and boy friendly. If you're teaching geography, for example, kids can focus on where the participants come from. Launch a contest to see which student comes up with the most interesting, humorous, or outrageous—take your pick—fact about an athlete, and watch boys' competitive instincts take over. And speaking of competition, why has it gotten such a bad reputation lately? Boys are naturally competitive, and an adverse reaction to it reflects a more female perspective. When we squelch competitiveness, we miss opportunities to enhance boys' cognitive abilities. Most boys are crazy about games. Chess is a fantastic mind exercise, and it's making a comeback nationwide. Join in the fun. Have chess sets available for students to use during down times. If you're a proficient player, challenge your kids to a game. (If you can't tell the difference between a rook and a pawn, now's the time to learn.) Use trivia games to reinforce the key facts and concepts that will appear on tests. And don't forget information scavenger hunts; they're a great way for kids to practice using their research skills. Read to children at every opportunity, in the classroom and in the library. Let students bring their lunches to an empty classroom for a week while a volunteer reads to them. You may be surprised by how many boys show up. Have a rainy-day recess book handy to read aloud in a quiet corner. For many boys, preschool storyhour was the last time they experienced reading as fun; they'll respond to storyhour reborn. Make storytelling a significant part of your reading instruction. It helps boys understand narrative structure and turns reading into a good time. Storytelling naturally appeals to struggling readers, and as education researcher Stan Steiner points out, boys make up 70 percent of the students in remedial classes. More importantly, introduce storytelling as an alternative assessment technique. For example, rather than quizzing students on the contents of a book, let them stand up individually and talk about what they've read. Give each student an opportunity to add more detail to the presentation. You may be surprised to discover how much boys can tell you about what they've learned if you eliminate written reports and formal presentations—obstacles to boys who struggle with language skills.

Reading Options, Not Reading Optional

Remember, it's good to have choices. Give boys the chance to choose the type of reading materials they want and the level of difficulty they are comfortable with, and they won't regard reading as a chore and language as an enemy. Present all kinds of stories—everything from oral folktales to written text. Expose boys to stories that they read, but also to the stories that you read and tell. Allow boys to respond to language in the ways that mean the most to them—through drawing, writing, acting, or storytelling. Remember, one size does not fit all; it fits only those who succeed. Although boys often do not become successful readers, the cost is too high to allow this trend to continue. It's time to give boys more options, to respect their preferences. Boys can become readers: I've seen it with my own eyes.

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Michael Sullivan is director of the Weeks Public Library in Greenland, NH, and the author of Connecting Boys with Books: What Libraries Can Do (ALA Editions, 2003).