I asked you to observe the reading habits of the boy(s) in your life to see if, maybe, they read more than we think they do.  So, what did you observe?  Were you surprised to discover how much, how little or how “just right” your boy reads?

As I’ve said before, reading—especially reading for pleasure can be a tricky thing.  What one person finds engaging may not be interesting to the next person. The trick is to match the right book to the right reader.

Below are some examples of books that might have high interest to boys and reluctant readers. The Milwaukee Public Library also has a list of Books for Boys on our website where you will find a list of engaging books for boys ages 3 through teen. Check them out.  You won’t know which books will grab a child’s interest until you expose them to it and “sell” the book a bit.

I also recommend you check one of our links.  Boys Read’s mission is to transform boys into lifelong readers. This site does a great job of identifying the challenge of boys and reading and offers terrific reading suggestions.

And here are a few titles you might want to share:

Life-Size Zoo: Actual Size by Teruyuki Komiya 

This book is sitting on my desk right now and is just so cool!  It includes life-size photographs of various animals, with fold-out pages and charts of interesting facts. This book is perfect for both young readers and lower elementary readers as well.  There are plenty of “animal potty” facts that are sure to delight.

If you are a fan of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney, you’ll be pleased to know that the fourth book in the series, Dog Days, will be out on October 12.  If you haven’t checked out this series, I encourage you to do so.  Kinney “gets” boys and captures the middle-schooler’s voice to perfection.  Anyone who lives with a middle-schooler or recalls their own middle school years can relate.

Graphic novels are a great way to encourage reading—especially for boys. Children in grades 5-8 might enjoy Hyperactive, created and written by Scott Christian Sava with art by Joseph Bergin III.  Twelve-year-old Joey learns that he can move at super speed and uses his new super power for good—like doing chores lightening fast.  Then, a shady executive from a pharmaceutical company decides to try to use Joey’s DNA for not-so-good! 

Chances are if you clicked on this entry it’s because you have a young man in your life that you are trying to engage in books and reading. I’ve written before about boys and reading. It’s a reoccurring theme for those of us with boys. I’m the mother of two sons—one that I’ve always considered to be a reader—usually has a book on his nightstand, reads the paper every morning, asks me to pick up a book at the library, etc…. and one whom I would typify as, “He can read just fine—scores well above his grade level on standardized tests, reads when he needs to for school assignments, but he doesn’t read much for pleasure.” I rarely catch him with his nose in a book. Of course I want him to be a capable reader who reads to gain important information needed to succeed in school. I think he’s okay there. But, I also want him to understand the pure joy of reading for pleasure. And of course, by reading for pleasure, I know he will improve his comprehension, vocabulary, and critical thinking skills.

Matching the right book to the right boy can be a challenge.

Perhaps we also need to take a step back and re-examine the issue of reading and what constitutes reading. Maybe our boys read more than we think they do. Video games (ugh, I know) come with pretty involved instructions. I can’t make any sense out of Pokemon cards—but they do have a lot of words on them! If you have a sports fan in your house you may catch him reading the sports page or a sports magazine. Even if he only reads the captions—he is reading! Okay, this may be stretching it, but have you ever looked at all of the text when you hit “guide” on your television remote? Some shows have lengthy descriptions! The daily comics and graphic novels can be surprisingly complex. I know none of this equals reading “meaningful” text or novels with well-developed characters and stories where there is a clear beginning, middle and end. But, it is, undeniably, reading.

Look around and observe the reading habits of the boys in your life. Observe what your children are doing and take note of this “environmental” reading they may be engaging in. Is it a lot or not much at all? What is the factor that is getting them to read? Is it a game, the activity itself, or popularity? You might be surprised to discover that they read more than you think they do.

Next time I’ll discuss ways to elaborate on this "base" to try to encourage boys to expand their reading habits/choices and I promise to cover some boy books for those who still want to see their noses in a book!