I Used to be a Boy who Reads

My nephew Will carries on the family tradition without delay by reading Laura Numeroff's "If You Give a Moose a Muffin" to brother Ben.

Fun fact about me: I am a guy who reads who used to be a boy who reads.  It’s true!  As an uncle to three kiddies under the age of 4, their progress as readers is a priority.  Ernie and I have been buying them books since before they were born, totally skipping those chewable baby board books and building up their picture book collection with brilliance such as Mo Willems‘ Pigeon books (my fave is Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog). But since first coming across the term “boy lit” in Powerless author Matthew Cody’s blog, I’ve had a special eye on my nephews’ literacy journey.

Robert Lipsyte‘s New York Times Book Review essay from August, Boys and Reading: Is There Any Hope?, got me thinking again about my nephews and past as a Boy who Reads. Lipsyte sets his essay at the 2007 American Library Association Conference where he joined a panel of other male writers meant to “demystify to the overwhelmingly female audience the testosterone code that would get teenage boys reading.” The truth is, in the gender divide of reading, boys and young men are behind their female counterparts. Lipsyte explores the circle of life that involves educational mandates, cultural attitudes, and the publishing industry. He eloquently writes about what boys need:

To be approached individually with books about their fears, choices, possibilities and relationships — the kind of reading that will prick their dormant empathy, involve them with fictional characters and lead them into deeper engagement with their own lives. This is what turns boys into readers.

Dad dug the Hardy Boys

He also cites the generation divide.  Lipsyte and his son Sam are a little older than my dad and myself, but we probably fall into roughly the same eras of reading.  Robert reminds us that in the 1940′s and 50′s, there was no YA genre, but for Sam and me growing up in the 70′s and 80′s, it was the world we knew.  To get a further sense of the reading habits of the males in our family, I asked my dad (who turned 64 this year) about his boy-reading and the influence he had growing up.  Early in his reading career, he looked for short cuts: In 3rd grade and even into 4th, he chose “easy books” like Dr. Seuss, Curious George,  Puff n’ Toot, Stone Soup, and Mother Goose so that he could do “easy book reports.” He hated book reports, and my Grandmother spent many of her precious hours helping him.  After a while she was having none of this easy stuff, and passed on to him books from her own collection. She gave him The Secret of the Old Clock, the first collection of Nancy Drew stories. Dad said, “I never looked back; I couldn’t get enough of the mystery book series, even it was for girls.”  After Spin & Marty, a series of shorts on the Mickey Mouse Club, did a take off on the first Hardy Boys Book, The Tower Treasure, Dad picked up the comic book version–and then got hooked onto the books. With his new found love of reading, he played catch up with some of classics he should’ve been reading all long: The Wizard of Oz, and Disney’s Snow White and Robin Hood.  He tried to read Lewis’ original Alice in Wonderland, but hated it. Eventually he found his way to science fiction and Tolkien.

I am the oldest (at 37) of four boys.  My mother was an elementary school teacher, so it was a no-brainer that her sons were going to read, darnit!  While my folks were successful with myself and my next younger brother, Steve, they were not as successful with David and Mark (twins, age 30).  I guess we had a mini generation gap of our own.  A direct quote from Mark from once upon a time: “Why do you guys read so much?!”  Talking to David recently, his theory in our divide was basically that he and Mark had more friends and Steve and I were nerds, haha.  But also, their friends were…different.  Through most of high school, their social life involved more drinking and non-reader friends.  Reading was for school anyway, and they had better things to do at home. Their energy was always bigger than mine and Steve’s.  David says they were too rambunctious to sit down and read anything.

I read the tales of Peter and his little brother to my own little brother. Steve would in turn spend time reading to our youngest brothers, though it took a while to stick with them....

I recall distinctly the day my reading career “officially” began.  My Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Beasley (like the doll in Family Affair) sat me down on a chair in front of her desk, which lived in the far left corner of the room near the coat hooks.  She asked me, “Do you want to learn read?” I’m happy to report I answered, “yes.”  I never looked back, and eventually began reading Judy Blume books to Steve from my top bunk bed while he listened from his bottom bunk.  Other early faves of mine included Trapped in Death Cave, The Westing Game, Bummer Summer, I am the Cheese, Harriet the Spy, The Great Brain, Please Send Junk Food, and more.  I also read The Hobbit in 4th grade, but didn’t tackle the LOTR books until my early-20′s. Later, as a young guncle in training, my boy lit also included traditionally girl lit (perhaps even girlier than Dad’s Nancy Drew!) such as Izzy Willy Nilly, Memo To Myself When I have a Teenaged Daughter, and a handful of the Couples series romance books with such titles as Teacher’s Pet and Fire & Ice. (Eek.) Plus Mom’s Sidney Sheldon novels! 

To get a further feel for what’s going on in the trenches these days, I thought I’d consult my own resident 5th grade teacher, i.e. my sister-in-law Alison aka Mommy to Will & Ben.  With her students–both boys and girls–there are two crucial motivating elements, which echo some of Lipsyte’s thoughts: “Freedom to read whatever they want and matching them with choices that capture their interest.”  With the boys, she says,  “[The ones] who are reluctant to read have a hard time telling me at first what interests them. So many times when I ask a boy what he likes, he will mutter ‘sports, I guess.’” She hooks them up with Dan Gutman or Mike Lupica “and they will “muddle through, somewhat engaged.”  But once Alison gets to know her boys better as the school year progresses, she can “match them with books that have experiences they can relate to.” S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders has been good for her “tough guys” (I admit to only seeing the movie) and Jerry Spinelli’s Wringer does well too. Alison also uses a sort of “book club” approach where she tells her reluctant reader that she’ll try the book out too.  She’ll read a few chapters and she and her student can talk about it–with no pressure of a grade–the next day.  That’s a pretty rad idea, Alison!

We will continue to buy books for the kids for birthdays and holidays–Uncle Ernie and I will help make sure that the girls and the boys are on equal ground.  And we will always have books on our shelves for them to pick out and read when they are able to visit.  I look forward to the day I can pull Cody’s Powerless off my shelf to hand to Will–or any of them.  By then maybe I’ll be able to pull down a book written by me.  A family’s literacy history adds a unique picture beyond just the bare bones facts of births-deaths-marriages.  I know I have my eye firmly locked on our past, as well as our future trends. 

Question Time: Guys, what were some of your early favorites and How do those choices affect your reading habits now?  What “girl lit” made it into your collection? For all, what are some of books your young charges are reading now?  Comment below!

More on this topic will be appearing along the way, I’m sure….

Related article:

• Boys: Reluctant Readers? (bookclubbabe.wordpress.com)

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