Boys read a lot less than girls, because assigned reading is oriented toward girls' tastes, writes Tom Sarrouf on the Institute for Family Studies. Boys are "more interested in war, comedy, sports, and science fiction, and more excited about informational texts," while girls prefer narratives and romances. "Boys are also far less likely to read books by female authors or with female protagonist, but girls were willing to read books written by men and with male protagonists."
Boys get enough exposure to nonfiction, writes Katya Sedgewick on American Mind. They need to read classic literature with male heroes. (According to the 2024 What Kids Are Reading report, Diary of a Wimpy Kid is on reading lists from elementary to high school, she writes. Not good enough.)
Sedgewick grew up in the Soviet Union reading Twain, Dumas and Tolstoy. She makes a case for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as a "rebel child living by wits and daring." (I loved Tom Sawyer as a kid.) "I find it strange that teachers don’t see it as their job to connect the next generation of Americans to their heritage, preferring to submerge students into the sea of forgettable contemporary titles rather than explaining complicated language and showing their students how to love historic writing."
As a high school English teacher and father of young readers, Auguste Meyrat thinks boys need more books with "action, conflict and even violence" and fewer books focused on "feelings and relationships."
He suggests teachers read this overview of classic adventure novels to create boy-friendly reading lists that celebrate masculinity rather than condemn it as "toxic." (I've read every book mentioned.)
Graphic novels have become very popular, writes Meyrat. They're "intended to serve as a gateway to non-illustrated novels," but they don't build reading comprehension skills. "Instead of using words to recreate characters, events, settings, tones, arguments, and themes in their minds," students "can look at the pictures that already do this work for them."
The Wimpy Kid series, he writes, "has more in common with an animated cartoon for kids than it does with a comparable YA novel."
Old School's Rick Hess discovered a popular series called Great Battles for Boys by history teacher Joe Giorello. This is the kind of history that boys are eager to read about," he writes. But school assignments focus on social and cultural history, which can be "tedious."
"As a kid, I found books about the Battle of Midway or D-Day vastly more interesting than grim tales of teen angst," Hess writes. "Too many 'diverse, inclusive' reading lists feature authors who may vary by race and gender but overwhelmingly tend to write introspective, therapeutic tales that read like an adaptation of an especially heavy-handed afterschool special."
The nonprofit I Would Rather Be Reading uses “trauma responsive literacy support and social-emotional learning to help children,” he learned from a recent email. Hess wonders "if any of the books in question feature stoic virtues or manly courage."
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