Bringing Boys Back to Books
Here are some actual quotes, things I have overheard people saying in my work as a children’s librarian:
- “Oh, no,” says the father (it is usually a father) to his scowling son, “You can’t read Captain Underpants. Choose something serious.”
- “Don’t you have something with fewer pages? I don’t like to read,” says the boy with the school assignment in hand.
Both quotes show some of the challenges around boys and reading – we have high expectations and many boys don’t like to read – and are falling behind in literacy tests with long term consequences.
There is little dispute about this challenge and the statistics show that it is a global problem. Does it start at home or at school? Who is to blame?
How do we find a solution? A lot of study has gone into finding ways to encourage boys to read. However, by every available measure boys continue to lag behind girls when it comes to literacy skills needed to succeed in school. One of Toronto Public Library's key objectives is to encourage boys to read as a foundation for life success.
Boys will read to find out stuff. They are usually pretty good at “life reading” – the kind of reading you need to do to get by in the world. They can'text, use a smart phone, play computer and console games with very little encouragement, and these are all forms of literacy. The fact is that boys are reading more than paren'ts realize: reading a comic book is reading; reading a sports magazine is reading; doing a Google search is reading. All reading is good reading and a place to begin.
For reluctant readers, it is important to understand what the issue is. There may be learning challenges, boys may not know what to read, and they may not know other boys or role models who read, they may not have a quiet time in the day to read between school sports and a million other activities, and maybe it’s just the cool factor.
How can boys be encouraged to read and how can'the library help? TPL has a number of programs to support reading including the TD Summer Reading Club. Here boys can choose from a whole range of topics and kinds of books, from the classics to graphic novels, from paperbacks to audiobooks and ebooks, fiction and nonfiction. The studies show that if it’s his choice, then he’ll want to read it. The Summer Reading Club is an invitation to free the imagination and explore.
What have you found works in encouraging boys to read? Tell us what TPL could do that would help boys read more.
7 thoughts on “Bringing Boys Back to Books”
It seems to me that funding for new books has been curtailed rather heavily over the last few years. I have requested several books over the last year or two – usually new publications – and have had no notification that the books are being ordered or not. It goes without saying that I not received these books. The books are non-fiction and always of informative and educational value.
Perhaps it might be worth revisiting how the funds are apportioned.
Thanking you,
Betty
I think a great idea for a program would be to have older boy mentors read to young boys as they can’take them as an example and work towards making reading more boy-friendly. My brother really loves the “Diary of a Wimpy kid” books so getting more books like this would also help!
Thanks for the feedback Betty, and thanks for making the effort to alert us to books we might have overlooked in developing our collections. I’m going to forward your comment to our collections department. In terms of being notified if a book has found its way into our collection, I can look into that. You can contact me at ksparling@torontopubliclibrary.ca or 416-397-5970 if you’d like to discuss this further.
If you haven’t had a chance to fill out our survey and you have a moment to do that, please do. Here’s a direct link to the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TPL_2012-2015_Strategic_Plan
And if you know of other people who might like to provide their feedback, let them know about our strategic plan website http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/stratplan2012
Thanks for your feedback Mariam. In addition to factoring this into our strategic plan development, I’ll forward your comment to our collections department. I’m going to check out those “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” books, too. They look pretty good… and popular!
I think that the library’s literacy programs can benefit from looking further into what teachers use in the classroom to engage kids of all ages in reading: specifically you could have a look at “before, during and after” reading activities, and what these types of engagement mean for different learners. An important document in this regard is the Ministry of Ed. “Think Literacy” for grades 7-12. It gives excellent examples. I am a tutor in the adult literacy program as well as a teacher, and I use before-during-after reading activities with my learner at every session. Like you’ve already pointed out, boys will read things that interest them. Enactment strategies of all kinds, esp. those that use drama techniques, can be very fun for boys. Dr. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm has a great book on this (published by Scholastic). Also, Cris Tovani’s “I Read it But I Don’t Get It” is an excellent resource for teaching reading. To that end, the library might want to consider adding some professional books on education. The vast majority of these texts are written by experienced teachers who have collaborated extensively with other teachers, and so they have a great deal to share about how kids learn which I find very useful when I work with adult learners.
sorry, forgot to add: “Me Read– and How!” Another important doc when it comes to boys and reading.
thanks again for all your excellent feedback, A.M. I was just checking out “Me Read — and How!”
( http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/meRead_andHow.pdf )
It looks great.