Boys like to read about trucks, boys being bad, sports, and war. They like humor. They like action. I鈥檓 picking all of this up from well-acclaimed children鈥檚 authors who are presenting at a conference I鈥檓 attending here at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va., on how to get boys hooked on reading.
But here鈥檚 a thought from the conference that may not exactly be intuitive: Boys also like to read books that grab them emotionally, according to , the author of the Rotten Ralph series and Joey Pigza books, which are about boys who are bad. Gantos said that when he writes a book, half the material is about what happens on the outside of a character, which includes a lot of action, but half the content is also about what鈥檚 going on inside the character. The message of his books about kids who are bad, he says, is that the children are loved unconditionally despite the fact that they mess up a lot, which children can identify with. His books are popular among boys.
Boys, Gantos contends, 鈥渓ike the emotional stuff as much as the physical stuff.鈥� He says that when kids read about characters with feelings, it helps them to recognize the feelings they have themselves.
To give an example of how his books contain both action and a 鈥渉uman foundation,鈥� Gantos read from his book, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key. In the story, Joey, the narrator tells how after lunch at school, his medicine has worn off and he is 鈥渨ired.鈥� He annoys his teacher until she puts him out in the hallway. He then spins in the hallway in imitation of a Tasmanian devil. The teacher tells him to stop and stay in one place in the hallway. Joey seems to be unable to keep from being extremely annoying, and he knows he is extremely annoying. His actions are funny, but the reader also begins to wonder where all this is going to end up on an emotional level.
I draw attention to Gantos鈥� point here because I was inclined to think that the more that a book focuses on a character鈥檚 feelings, the less a boy would want to read it.
Donna Wasserbach, a teacher at Baltimore鈥檚 RICA school, which is for students with special needs, mentioned to me in a lunch conversation an experience that confirmed for her the importance of not putting boys in a box in predicting what kinds of books will engage them. She said that she had an 8th grade male who read the Anne of Green Gables series, which is about a girl who is adopted out of an orphanage by a man and his sister who run a farm together. The series is generally well-loved by girls, but not by boys.
鈥淗e was in foster care and knew what it was like not to be wanted,鈥� she said. 鈥淗e could identify with Anne of Green Gables.鈥� She said the boy, who was usually a reluctant reader, read the series several times because Anne鈥檚 feelings matched many of his own.
Wasserbach concluded, 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 think that just because they鈥檙e a boy, they鈥檙e going to want to read action-packed novels.鈥�
written by Mary Ann Zehr