How to Get Boys to Read “books for Girls”
When I imagined children, my happy fantasies were to curl up and read my favorite children’s books to the children. I drew evenings at House on the Prairie , Pippi Longstocking and Little Women . When my two boys showed up, I worried that their attachment to boards about farm equipment meant they wouldn’t even read, say, Anne of Green Gables because it was a “girl’s book” and they could only be interested in boys’ tales …
As it turned out, my fears were unfounded: so far, they have liked books with both boys and girls, and I believe that this has to do with the joint efforts that their father and I made to put a variety of books in front of them.
Quite frankly, the main problem was the sheer number of books involving boys: a Florida State University study found that only a third of children’s books published in 1900-2000 were in the character of an adult female or female animal, but almost ubiquitous. … Writer Caroline Paul checked the New York Times children’s bestseller list and found that none of the top ten featured a female protagonist.
Keeping boys in the spotlight in children’s stories – and washing girls – means kids come to the realization that only boys’ stories are worth telling. Now the girl will read the so-called book and the boy for girls books, but the boys, afraid to be associated with anything feminine, will learn to reject the stories of girls. Youth Association writer Shannon Hale, who writes novels with the word “princess” in the title, notes that when she speaks at school meetings, the administration sometimes only allows girls to attend . (Though sometimes a lonely, embarrassed boy asks her to sign a book as soon as the shore clears.) Other visiting novelists, whose books feature male protagonists, have an entire class in their audience. Hale makes a compelling argument that “the idea that girls should read and understand boys, but that boys should not read about girls, that boys should not understand and empathize with the world’s women … this belief leads directly to a culture of rape.”
Over the past few months, I have developed a program to have more girls’ stories in front of my boys. And I’m happy to report that I have pretty good success rates so far. Below are a few tips to get your boys to read “books for girls”.
Encourage reading in general
Here’s a handy guide on how to educate your reader . First, remember that you love to read and that if your children see you enjoying a good book, they will be more likely to take one of them. Read to your newborn, toddler, toddler — and also introduce your old favorite books (but the guide suggests “touch-ups” to avoid outdated racist, sexist, or xenophobic elements).
Change pronouns
When you read stories about a gorilla, a tractor, or a small engine that can make these characters look like girls. As Jenny Yabroff writes in the Washington Post , there is nothing in the photographs to indicate that Pete the cat must be a boy, and if your child is not reading yet, he will not know that you are changing the gender of Elliot’s elephant. …
Supervise
New York Public Library Reference Librarian Gwen Glaser, who offers books for children through the NYPL’s virtual referral line, says: “We have a responsibility to try to offer books about girls [boys], just as we have a responsibility to post books about colored characters, about children who do not live in this country, and about children whose life experience is really different from theirs (also in front of them). “
So on our weekly library trips, I pick two or three books per trip, and my 7- and 4-year-old boys also pick a few — usually stories about dragons or tractors as well. After we read the stories about dragons and tractors, I suggest reading Pippi Longstocking or The Borrowers . ( Peppy was a huge success, and we read one chapter per night.) Each trip means a few new books with female characters, and the books I buy are also gender balanced.
Audiobooks
This is my number one A ++ strategy. In preparation for my long car trip this summer, I downloaded a couple of Little House books as well as Ramona Pest . Listening to books was also new to me, and I found this skill of the performer to be the key. That is: you should get all of Ramona’s books that Stockard Channing reads. Her voices are worth dying for – she perfectly captures the slightly hysterical facet of desperate attention, misunderstood Ramona; her voice for Howie makes him your typical stuffed neighbor’s pesky kid. (Talk about introducing boys to girls’ books: my husband, who never read Beverly Cleary’s books as a kid, said he wanted to listen to Ramona the Pest again.)
The Little House books are read by Cherry Jones, who is also not hunched over in the performing department, and describing life on the prairie, in particular how to build houses from scratch, got everyone’s attention in the car. Note: You will need to talk to your children about Native Americans and this particular piece of American history.
Don’t push
Glazer strongly emphasizes that she does not believe that there are target markets for such a thing as book boys and book girls, and publishers are trying to get into those markets, but if children themselves do not categorize books as girls and boys ”we also shouldn’t introduce this idea.
She described her role as a referral librarian and frequent advisor to children’s books:
“We strive for two things – first, to see the child’s own experience reflected on the page. It is important for young readers to see themselves in the book. This does not mean that the character has to “match” them exactly, but the experiences of the characters must resonate with them. ” Second, she stresses that “children should have the right to read whatever they choose. We talk a lot about educating the reader, how to channel the energy of children into certain books, and I think it is very, very important to let many of them self-govern … especially since we are trying to prohibit children’s reading habits, the more joy we get from it. “
This means don’t overdo it in curating what your kids read – for example, by criticizing their choice of graphic novels or superhero stories. My son didn’t like The Borrowers and we dropped them after just one chapter. There are many other books in the world and I am not going to die on this hill.
Search for “Readers”
This is where your local children’s librarian really comes in handy. If your son likes Harry Potter , you can ask the librarian what he thinks makes him feel this way.
Even if the child says, “I’m a 12-year-old boy, and I want to read stories about boys,” Glazer teases exactly which elements the boy liked in his previous readings: “I would try to highlight what this boy thinks. this is a “book for boys”, and what attributes are we really talking about – are they dynamic? Is it about sports? What stereotypical “boys” do you actually react to? And then try to match those attributes, sometimes even suggesting the female lead or non-white character.
“There are so many female adventure stories and girly detective stories now … I think if you had a boy who said, ‘I only like book boys,’ I would say,“ Maybe you could try something. something like the Chronicle of Kronos Anna. Ursu about a girl who must save the world. I like to recommend this as a Percy Jackson book to read because it is also about Greek mythology. “
To my son, who is crazy about Harry Potter, she offers “The girl who traveled around the fairyland on a ship of her own making . “ If you go to your local children’s library and describe what your boys are already using, the librarian will help you take home a stack of new books and try them out.
If your library doesn’t have a children’s librarian, check out the Summer Reading Series We Need Various Books , which offers many “if you liked, try this” sentences. Or take a look at NYPL Recommends (also @nyplrecommends on Twitter).
But whatever you do, don’t push. If your boy only likes superhero comics, that’s okay. I’ve heard that a good reader is Wonder Woman .