A LITERACY INITIATVE FOR BOYS
BY JON SCIESZKA
Scieszka explains WHY:
I grew up with five brothers, taught elementary school for ten years, and have been writing books for kids for twelve years. I started writing books like The Stinky Cheese Man and the Time Warp Trio series in part because I didn’t see much of a guy sensibility in the worlds of elementary education and kids’ books. Now it’s time to do more. Too many boys still struggle with reading. Our boys need help. And that’s why I’ve decided to become a spokesperson for boys and for this literacy initiative called GUYS READ.
Statistics show that as a group boys:
•
Score lower in all grades on standardized reading & writing tests than
girls
•
Are more likely than girls to be placed in remedial classes or held back a
grade
•
Rank lower in their class and earn fewer honors than girls
•
Get into fights twice as often, & commit suicide 4 times more often than
girls.
Something is not working for boys, but there is little to no direct research on gender and literacy, and not much in the way of support for boys’ literacy. There are literacy programs for adults, for students of English as a second language, for women, and for prison inmates. There are no literacy programs for boys. GUYS READ is, long overdue, a literacy program for boys.
WHAT'S WITH GUYS?
• Biologically, boys are
slower to develop than girls and often struggle with reading and writing skills
early on.
•
The action-oriented, competitive learning style of many boys works against them
learning to read and write.
•
As a society, we teach boys to suppress feelings. Boys aren’t practiced and
often don’t feel comfortable exploring the emotions and feelings found in
fiction.
•
Boys don’t have enough male role models for literacy. Because the majority of
adults involved in kids’ reading are women, boys don’t see reading as a
masculine activity.
•
Many books boys are asked to read don’t appeal to them. They aren’t motivated
to want to read.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
• Men: get off your. . . busy schedule. . . and read with your boys. Be a role model. Talk about reading. Let boys see you reading. Acting as a positive, literate role model is the single most important thing you can do to help boys read.
•
Booksellers: have male staff members highlight their favorite books for boys.
Make a display of GUYS READ books.
•
Teachers and librarians: Take another look at your required reading lists.
Imagine how many of the books would appeal to you if you were a boy.
•
Let boys know that non-fiction reading is reading. Magazines, newspapers,
websites, biographies, science books, comic books, graphic novels.
. .are all reading material.
•
Form a father-son or parent-son Bookclub. Meet at an indoor soccer facility or
gym to talk about books, and then run around too. Be a model for how to read a
book and talk about it.
•
Look at the recent literature on the psychology of boys
• Try to help boys explore the possibilities of a wider emotional range and connection to feelings through reading.
•
Check in to www.guysread.com to hear
more from experts, find out what other guys are doing, get recommendations and
booklists, share your successes and failures.
A FEW OF SCIESZKA’S FAVORITE BOOKS FOR GUYS
For Young Guys
The Carrot Seed, by Ruth Krauss. Illustrated by Crockett
Johnson.
Go,
Dog. Go!, by Philip D. Eastman.
The Stupids Die, by Harry Allard. Illustrated by James
Marshall.
Grimm’s
Fairy Tales
For Early Readers
Be A Perfect Person in Just Three Days, by Stephen Manes.
Flat
The
Scary
Stories to Tell in the Dark, Alvin Schwartz, editor.
Sideways Stories from
The Twits, by Roald Dahl.
For
Older Guys
Oddballs, by William Sleator.
Tangerine, by Edward Bloor.
Watchmen, a graphic novel by Alan Moore.
Poetry
Kids
are the best judge of the poetry they like. I like the funny poetry of Douglas
Florian, Colin McNaughton, Jack Prelutsky, and Shel Silverstein.
Nonfiction
Choose
books based on the subjects they care about. Look at books by Russell Freedman,
David Macaulay, Jim Murphy, and Seymour Simon.
A
FEW GOOD BOOKS ABOUT GUYS
Gurian,
Michael. The Good Son: Shaping the Moral Development of Our Boys and Young Men
Gurian,
Michael. The Wonder of Boys: What Parents, Mentors, and Educators Can Do to
Shape Boys into Exceptional Men
Kindlon,
Daniel J.; Thompson, Michael; et al. Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional
Life of Boys
Pollack,
William S. Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood
Pollack,
William S. Real Boys' Voices
Following are suggestions
from some very savvy guysread.com visitors.
1.
Holes by Louis Sachar
The twisted story of bad luck Stanley Yelnats.
2.
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
A
thirteen year old guy’s survival tale . . .and more.
3.
Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey
Five “Epic’” novels worth of fun and gags.
4.
Time Warp Trio series by Jon Scieszka
Three guys who can travel anywhere in time or space --yikes.
5.
Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
If
you haven’t heard of Harry by now . . .
6.
Redwall series by Brian Jacques
Magical mystical witty stuff.
7.
Almost everything by Roald Dahl
Votes
for The BFG, The Twits, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory, The Enormous Crocodile, George’s Marvelous Medicine . . .
8.
Maniac McGee by Jerry Spinelli
“One part fact, two parts legend, three parts
snowball” says the author.
9.
His Dark Materials Trilogy: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber
Spyglass by Philip Pullman Heroic fantasy series -- big and deep.
10.A
Series
of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snickett
The
Watsons Go to
Babe
and Me; Honus and Me; Jackie and Me by Dan Gutman
Monster;
Bad Boy by Walter Dean Myers
Joey
Pigza Loses Control; Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos
GUYS READers Recommend:
For
Little Guys
•
Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go
•
Caps For
•
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble; Dr. DeSoto by William Steig
•
Byron Barton books
• I
Spy books by Walter Wick
Picture
Books For All Ages
•
Dr Seuss books
•
Stinky Cheese Man; True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!;
Math Curse by Jon Scieszka
•
Jumanji; The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris
VanAllsburg
Fantasy/Sci-Fi
•
The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
•
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
•
The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer
•
Shade’s Children by Garth Nix
•
Copper Elephant by Adam Rapp
•
The Giver by Lois Lowry
•
Skellig; Kit’s Wilderness by David Almond
•
Tomorrow:When The War Began by John Marsden
• Rats
by Paul Zindel
Non-Fiction
•
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
•
The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
•
Oh, Yuck!: The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty by Joy
Masoff
•
The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family by Matt Groening
Fiction
•
Brian’s Winter; The River by Gary Paulsen
•
Nothing But The Truth by Avi
•
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
•
This Can’t Be Happening at MacDonald Hall; No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman
•
Rats Saw God by Rob Thomas
•
Ironman; Stotan! by Chris Crutcher
•
Extreme Elvin; Slot Machine by Chris Lynch
•
Burger Wuss by M.T. Anderson
CHECKOUT BOOKADVENTURE.ORG
that has a HUGE database of books by grade level and interest for help in
matching books to readers. (It’s free & easy to sign up – look in
Kid’s Section under Bookfinder)
MARCH
MADNESS PICKS:
GUYS
READers,
Thanks
again for all of your votes. We've got some new leaders.
Harry
Potter and Captain Underpants have fallen off a bit. . .
And
the books of Will Hobbs have been rocking the vote. THE MAZE, FAR
NORTH,
RIVER THUNDER, and JASON'S GOLD have all been the big vote getters.
These
are outdoor adventure books with real characters. For novel reading
older guys.
LENNY
AND MEL by Erik P. Kraft are short stories for everyone. (It didn't get any
votes yet because it just came out . . . but I thought you might like it. . . )
Ted
Arnold's PARTS, and MORE PARTS are two GUYS READ
picture book votes
for younger guys.
Jon
Scieszka
GUYS
READ