I’ve written several posts in the past few months about girls out performing boys in college. I care about this topic not because it represents some “crisis,” which conjures up images of persecuted boys and dominatrix girls. We’re in the midst of a major sociological shift without one clear cause. It’s really an important story. I also am following this story, because as a mother of boys, I want to see what girls are doing right and then copy them.
Jonah is smart, but in a very average sort of way. His math and spacial skills are especially good. I see the chess club in his future. He makes up math problems for himself and loves to show off his abilities in this area. His verbal and reading skills are good enough for him to be in the top reading group at school, but he’s not an over achiever here. He’ll rarely read a book on his own. If given the choice of playing with Lego or reading a book, he’ll always choose the Lego.
I want Jonah to be a book lover, like I was as a kid. I remember dreaming about reading every book in the school library. There was always a stack of Nancy Drews or Laura Ingalls Wilder on my bedside table. And it saved me academically. I was a complete space cadet throughout elementary and middle school. I had the ability to daydream for hours, a skill that I’m convinced I learned by having sit through mass as a kid. But the books taught me how to write and gave me enough information to do well on the tests. I could coast in school, because I read at home.
So, I’m trying to make my kid into a book lover, too. I’m not sure if this is a futile goal or not, but here’s my plan.
First, I’m trying to make him a better reader. I think to be a book lover, you have to read beyond grade level. First graders read at too slow of a pace to make it fun. He has to be better than his grade. So, I’ve set up reading goals for each day. The charts tap into his competitive streak. He’s got to read a chapter of the Magic Tree House series and one smaller book every day. By increasing the book consumption, his abilities should improve.
Second, I’m putting him in book environments. We’re going to the library twice a week where I give the boys an hour to read and browse whatever they like. Jonah’s going for the Superman comic books and the books based on TV shows. It’s doesn’t matter. He’s getting judgment free reading time. If he wants to read the back of DVD boxes, it’s cool with me. He’s got to walk out of the library with some real books to borrow, but during that hour, it’s just about enjoying being around books.
We also have a little room, which just contains a futon and a bookshelf full of kids’ books. I try to go in there with them once a day. I’ll read a magazine and just give them time for random reading.
Third, I’m limiting the time that Jonah spends in organized activities. Sports can be an enormous time suck, and he needs to be bored enough to pick up books on his own. I canceled TKD for July, so that we could have more time for random reading.
I’m not sure if this is going to work or not. It’s a lot of effort on my part, and he may not have that book loving chip in his brain. Shrug. We’ll have to see.
Apt. 11d 
Our just-finished-first-grade daughter is also into the Magic Tree House series.
I suspect the book-loving thing is mostly inborn, but I’m looking forward to hearing if you can create it.
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I keep hearing that homeschooled kids tend to be huge readers, so maybe being a reader isn’t so inborn, but has a lot to do with lifestyle.
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I think you can do it. I am doing the same campaign with my almost 8 year old – long weekend trips to the library) and quiet time when we both read.
Couldn’t agree with you more that they need to pick things they like ( not what I liked a kid)which in his case includes lots of underpants genre.
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Not to be totally critical, but I think you’re going about it totally wrong. (Note: the suggestions below are just what I learned being a dad of kids who love books. Note also that all my kids are girls, who maybe already had inherited my book-lover gene, but if you’re looking to see what the girls are doing, this is it.)
First, if the goal is to make reading fun, then it doesn’t help at all to set it up as a challenge, with competitions and goals. If you have to set goals to have him finish, then you should start with finding a more interesting books.
Second, you say that to be a book lover, you have to read above grade level. I completely disagree. A first grader on a first grade reading level asked to read a book on a third-grade reading level will see books as “work”. It is probably a successful method if your goal is to increase his reading level, but not if your goal is to make him love reading. It will more likely frustrate him, trying to read words and complex sentences that he’s not ready for.
Third, one thing I didn’t see in your list is reading to him. While first graders don’t have to be able to read above grade level, but the more interesting books tend to be above grade level, so rather than giving him above-level books to read, you could be reading them to him. (Books on tape are also good for this. I personally can’t stand them, but my girls listen to their ‘Junie B. Jones’ every night at bedtime.)
Fourth, he should be chosing all the books (or at least, let him choose from a broad pre-screened selection). Nothing makes reading less fun than being “assigned” books to read. I have read my daughters more godforsaken princess/fairy/pixie drivel than I thought one universe could hold. But, hey, that’s what holds their interest. You will get a kid to love reading more by 78 consecutive dramatic readings of “Captain Underpants” than a forced march through something more “enriching”.
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I’m confused about whether you consider comic books “real” books and whether you will be happy if he gets bored and decides to build bridges out of Legos instead of read “Little House on the Prarie.”
The most important thing to remember about raising little boys is that they aren’t little girls in different clothes. They have a different internal life. They have a different mode of expression and activity.
Almost every man I know who is a “reader” started out with lots and lots of comic books (some still read them).
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I study gene-environment interactions, so must chime in with clarification. Perhaps there is a Pinker-esque “book-love gene” (i.e., an in-born predisposition to love reading), and perhaps some have and other lack it. But screw genetic determinism! (Indeed, substitute “book loving gene” for “high IQ gene” and you’ll see how offensive and potentially destructive these types of arguments are.) Both those without and especially those with the gene will benefit from developing in the type of environments you describe.
Maybe one way to further improve the environment is to be sure to keep reading out loud to him? I believe any experts say it’s important for quite some time after a kid starts reading on his own. Perhaps another antidote to the grade-level challenge that you identify for 1st grade readers? Maybe also a way that older kids get short shrift … they are expected to start to read on their own, while younger siblings keep getting read to. Reading on your own is clearly less emotionally rewarding, relatively, in such a context.
Also, I think the key is the word “love.” Can reading be rewarding emotionally? Obviously. I’ve often used reading a story out loud in lieu of many other disciplinary tricks, mainly because the other tricks were rather ineffective. Along with other factors (including atmosphere and activities at daycare, and the type of library trips you mention), that has helped to make my little boy extremely book loving already.
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I’m a father of two boys — approx. 6 and 10. Don’t know the ages of you boys, so not sure this will be helpful. The oldest one is a voracious reader, and has pretty much since birth preferred reading (being read to early on) to any other activity on offer. Pretty much mirrors both my wife and I in terms of our profile as kids. Interestingly, he wouldn’t read to us, or let on that he could read, for quite some time (around 6 years old). My wife suspects he was fearful of not being read to anymore. Once he began reading aloud, he read with complete fluency, inflection, etc. We have kept reading to him, and he devours huge books (Aragon, Eldest, all the Harry Potter books, etc.) on a regular basis.
Our younger son has shown less interest in reading generally. He is a “run and jump” boy, and prefers physical activity, television, whatever, to reading or being read to. He has begun to read (he’s broken the code but still has trouble with some novel and longer words — except dinosaur names), but he doesn’t mind struggling and sees it as a challenge. He is also our kid who likes challenges and keeps at something until he masters it. We still read to him regularly. We all go to the library regularly, and there are books galore around the house. Many times, he’ll be bugging his brother to read, but big bro will be on page 237 of something and not be interested. Over time, at times like this, we’ve seen him more regularly pull a book off the shelf, page through it himself, and clearly “read” parts. He’s getting there. We are trying to encourage without pushing. Mostly we are demonstrating — library, all of us reading, reading aloud, they ALWAYS each get read to before bedtime. We figure kindergarten this fall will solidify some of the skills, and we hope that demonstration — plus some fun books, whether Captain Underpants, Magic Treehouse, whatever — will help. We’ve read the first Harry Potter to him (usually in half chapter chunks because otherwise he gets restless), because big brother talks about it incesantly. We’ve also read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to him.
OK, not sure if that is of any help. Just my (and my boys’) story. Best of luck. I don’t care whether it is nature/nurture or both, nothing beats a kid who loves reading. Best of luck.
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My 7 yr old step-nephew can’t read (and isn’t interested in reading) — his elder brother is actually a fine reader, but his mother is barely literate, and his millieu is rural working class (England). I gave him 2 Dan Dare books (comic books from the 50’s, look them up at amazon) the other week, and he gobbled them up. It helped that his grandfather (my dad, his surrogate father) immeidately started reading them when I presented 2 to him as well. Suggestion — get some comic books in (Dan Dare, Tintin, Asterix to start with) and read them yourself in his presence (if you don’t enjoy Tintin and Asterix in themselves I’ll be shocked!) and see what happens.
Oh, and if you want a brilliant book to read to them both, check out Nicholas (post about Nicholas here —
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I’m a reader, and my husband is not. All four of our children (one girl and three boys) have turned out to be readers. Here are some of the things that worked for me.
a)Reading aloud. We read aloud at bedtime, on car trips, on camping trips. My youngest is eleven and I still read aloud to him. My daughter, who is 20, will read aloud to the rest of us on car trips.
b)Severely limiting televison and computer games. In my case, I always removed the television for the entire summer. And computer games have had big limitations too. (Currently, I’ve declared the month of July game-free.) I think kids need to get bored before they pick up a book.
c)Letting them buy whatever books they picked out. (Or take them out of the public library.) I would give them age-appropriate books that I liked as gifts, but I always let them choose what they wanted to read.
d)I don’t like the idea of reading as competition. I really dislike school programs that reward reading with bribes. They’ve done studies on this. Put ten kids in a room with firetrucks and pay them to play with the firetrucks. Put another ten kids in another room and make the trucks available. The first time, both groups will play with the firetracks. But later, if you take away the bribe, the first group will stop plahing with the firetrucks. The second group, who were never bribed in the first place, will continue to play with the firetrucks.
e)I don’t agree that you have to read beyond grade level. Most of my friends are literature professors and writers (good readers, in other words), and many of them began their love of reading with comic books or stupid formula books. I myself still love to read children’s books.
f)I always bought my kids notebooks to keep journals in when we went on car trips. If they wanted to just draw pictures, that was fine with me. I just wanted them to get the idea that taking time to write in a journal or read a book was normal behavior.
g)I never told my kids they had to read. I just removed everything else (television, computer) and left lots of books lying around the house. My oldest son used to like me to read aloud to him while he played legos. He still prefers that someone read aloud to him. (He’s eighteen.)
Different kids respond to different methods so I can’t guarantee that any of this would work for you ….
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The boys are 4 and 7. Jonah, my little experiment mouse, is the 7 year old.
Yes, we’re still reading to the 7 year old out loud. He has to read one chapter of the Magic Treehouse book, we’ll read two to him, and then we put a bookmark in it for the next night. He also listens in on the books for the 4 year old. He loves being read to and always has. He can listen to stories for hours all curled up with us on the futon. He just doesn’t want to do it himself.
The charts are really anal retentive and I personally wouldn’t respond to them, but Jonah likes them. He likes seeing his progress and the goal of the prize at the end. I don’t know if that a boy trait or if it’s just Jonah, but we’re going with his strengths here.
Yes, I’m trying hard to not impose my standards of good literature on the kid. I haven’t been all that thrilled with only checking out comic books from the library, because I kinda feel that in order to get him to read, he actually has to be presented with some words. But I”m flexible. I do think his reading improved after he got into Yu-Gi-Oh cards this year and had to read all that babble on the bottom of the cards.
Thanks, Harry, for the book suggestions. Just added them to my Amazon shopping list. Oh, and I read the Lareau book last month, I’ve got a couple minor criticisms, but overall, I loved it.
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Thanks, guys. I appreciate all this input.
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My 9 y.o. ds looooves Mark Crilley’s “Akiko” graphic books – I think they’re ok for a 7 y.o., too.
And Goosebumps. Sigh. Trash but he likes it and reads it on his own. And Jonathan Rand’s “Chillers” series.
Do you have any Calvin & Hobbes books? That (and Capt. Underpants) really got ds going. Yes, and Yugioh cards. Interesting vocabulary you get from Yugioh cards.
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Just coming back to add that the British “Horrible Science” series appeals to many boys a lot (Nick Arnold is one of the authors): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0439978661/sr=8-1/qid=1152929351/ref=sr_1_1/102-8809602-9395344?ie=UTF8
Even if they’re a little too old for your son, the graphics and gross topics will draw him in when he’s a bit older.
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Glad you’re enjoy the advice, even as it rapidly get judgmental in tone.
I don’t have two kids, but it seems that Jonah listening in while the younger, non-reading sib gets a story is not the same as a story read just to him. Obviously you know him best, but consider. (BTW, the he reads to you, you read to him formula is something the “reading experts” push, too.)
Since I agree about striving for quality and taste, but allowing room for kid choice, a few ideas that are higher quality and more pretentious than MTH books, which I like enough to read aloud to our 5 yo. First, the D’Aulaire Books of Greek Myths and Norse Myths. Gory, incredibly compelling interpretations that are nonetheless moderated for the young. Gorgeously illustrated. (They have a biography of LIncoln that rocks, too. All available in large format paperback.)
There is also a kid’s versions of the Odyssey. Sounds pretentious, I know, but try it. A very compelling story for boys or girsl, and boyish enough for a boy’s boy to really love. And he’ll feel smug about having already internalized it all throughout his school career.
Also look for kid’s versions of the Arabian Nights. Again, gory and a little weird, but potentially very compelling.
Despite all this quality and good taste, I did recently buy a book version of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty because that’s what he really wanted at a book fair sale. I’m just glad that after 4 or 5 reads he tired of it.
Off to read …
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Another suggestion: boys often prefer nonfiction. My 8 year old chooses books on tanks, animals, castles, whatever. Don’t forget to encourage him to browse in the nonfiction juvenile section at the library, or pick up some interesting stuff there yourself. For example, the DK books to me seem really, really “busy,”: pages full of information and pictures that don’t flow linearly–but even though they aren’t meant to be read straight through like a novel, kids learn 1) facts and 2) how to absorb information from them.
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I agree with joe on the removing the tv and computer for big amounts of time. It really does help. I let them read what they want to themselves. They pick some good stuff, some crap. My 12 y.o. daughter adores Archie comic books. When I am reading to them, I pick the book. Sometimes it’s one some one has told us about, sometimes it’s from my childhood, sometimes it’s the book with the interesting cover from the library.
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My nine year old reads the sports pages every morning, and retains everything, and talks about it with his friends. The schools here have a 20-minutes-a-day requirement, with parent sign-off. Number two was passing his eyes over Tintin but not getting it for quite a while, and nothing was working for him – then Captain Underpants came into his life, and everything got better. So I guess this adds up to a recommendation for things which don’t push their envelopes and which they enjoy, and hoping and expecting that the habits formed will see them through to more chewy material later.
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I agree on the non fiction. My kids are 5 and 3, and the 5 year old loves the DK non fiction books. He’s become obsessed, in turn, with the Titanic, the Hindenberg, and Egyptian mummies that way. We read to him if it’s hard, if it’s at about his level we take turns, and if it’s easy, we get him to read to us.
I also decided early on that since I am an inveterate buyer of books, a book was the one thing I would almost always give in on in a shop if the boys asked me to buy it. I never give in on toys, but unless it’s complete rubbish, I’ll buy a book. We now have about 40 $2.95 Thomas the Tank Engine books which are much loved.
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“D’Aulaire Books of Greek Myths”
I bought this for my 7 year old daughter a year or two ago and just recently have gotten her interested. Though she is a great reader, she still likes for us to read to her at bedtime. She likes Cam Jansen, Magic School Bus (very interesting, and funny), and Mary-Kate and Ashley. Yes, somehow I got her interested in Full House, and when I told her Michelle was played by twins, she was amazed.
Like Jennifer, I always agree to buy books. Except if it’s one of those musical princess books my children always seem to want.
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Oh, yeah, the buying books for kids. Pretty much whatever they ask for, especially at Half Priced Books. There’s a bookstore near our pediatrician’s office, and we often go there after shots, rather than for ice cream.
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Raising a boy to love books
Laura of 11D is trying to raise her seven-year-old son to be a book lover. She asks commenters to critique her strategy and they do….
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One bit of advice from the father of a girl who doesn’t read.
Stay far, far, far, far away from any children’s “literature” award winners. These usually have morbid situations and themes more appealing to the adult book industry denizens than the intended readers. After all, they aren’t judged by children are they?
I wish I’d seen it coming so I could have tried to do something about it. In about the fifth grade the children were expected to read a book about a child who plays music on a slave ship to exercise the slaves on the middle passage, a book about a child whose mother is insane and unpredicatable, and another where the protaganist dies unexpectedly in the end. My daughter was alternately repulsed and bawling.
I don’t have anything against these themes, but instead of teaching my daughter to enjoy reading, we managed to teach her that books are painful. I don’t think they should be excluded from the curriculum. I would like to see a balance with entertaining reading early, and start introducing more mature themes as the students are, you know, more mature.I just think we’ve drifted from teaching reading, and the love of reading, to teaching ‘messages’ to the detriment of our children. We’ve regressed to the victorian view that they aren’t children, they are just small adults.
I mean, would you teach a child to love movies by feeding them a steady diet of Schindler’s List, Old Yeller, and Steel Magnolias? You might as well poke them with a sharp stick everytime they went in a theatre.
On to more positive bits. The books I remeber fondly from that age were the Encyclopedia Brown series, a series from the Alfred Hitchcock mystery magazine that included “Solve it yourself mysteries”, Ray Bradbury, and pretty much everything on the mythology shelf that was retellings of the stories.
Good Luck
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I have to wonder if its a good idea to deprive an athletic child of sports to try to force him to become a reader.
I realize that you have great intentions. But I’ve found, as a parent, that sometimes what I would like my kids to be interested in – what I am interested in – just doesn’t float their boat.
I think some of your ideas are good, but I don’t see sports as a time suck. My brother played every sport under the sun and was a voracious reader. I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive. My son is young but he does both as well.
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Also, I agree on the nonfiction suggestion to. Both my brother and my son love autobiographical stories about athletes and historical figures. They also love books about how things work.
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Argh…make that nonfiction suggestion too*
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I did my best to try to make my nieces into readers by 1) always taking them on a bookstore shopping trip when I visited (Me to a then age four niece “Where am I going to take you?” “To the bookstore!”) and 2) when they hit the point of being able to read a book by themselves, for the next year I sent them a $25 bookstore gift card every month.
Wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped, partially because I live far enough away that I can’t influence as much as I’d like and partially because my sister didn’t think it was as important as I did and semi-sabotaged it by allowing them to use part of the gift cards on non-book items.
As for myself, comic books were a big part of my learning to read, to the point that I still recall being ticked off that I wasn’t allowed in first grade to count comics as “books read”, even though they had harder words than books I could count, such as Dick and Jane readers. Would’ve been over 500 if I could’ve counted them, as it was, I topped out at just over 300, a new school record. In general, comics should not be looked down on as reading material relative to other things kids may read. As best-selling author George R.R. Martin once wrote, show me an 8 year old who knows what “invulnerable” means, and I’ll show you a kid who reads comics.
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About turning your boy into a book worm.
Fudgettaaboutitlady.
Aside from one other male of my acquaintance, I am the best read person I know. NON-fiction.
Here is how I came to this.
I never read much in gradeschool. I was raised both in NYC and on a farm. I did things that boys did, and loved it growing up. Nobody made me read.
In 6th grade for Christmas I got Lester Del Ray’s “Marooned on Mars.” A great story of danger and going to Mars with his uncle to save his father, I recall, although this is over 45 years ago.
I read all the science fiction I could. I read some other stuff too, but NOTHING boring or girlish.
I branched into non-fiction somewhere along the way when I realized that reading books was the most effective way of understanding my world, aside from actually being out in the world.
So, now my house contains hundreds of books, mostly non-fiction, and I am still adding to the heap.
Nobody made me do it or even encouraged me. If you love it, you will do it.
DO NOT KILL THE JOY. Trying to make him do it will only make him less likely to read. And, let him be a boy, BTW. Being a boy is good.
In short, encourage him to explore his world. Books are just part of the experience.
Oh, and all those well read women I know. They read mainly silly fiction or even sillier non-fiction (all about intuition and inner self, relationships, yawnn…). Trying to talk to one of these women about any real world topic is a waste of time, since they have such a shallow fund of knowledge, although they are not lacking in opinion.
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My parents worked to have “reader” children as opposed to nonreader children. There are three of us, two boys and a girl. (I’m the girl.) All three of us did and do read for entertainment and we’re in our thirties.
The things that worked for us were the same things that many folks have already mentioned.
I saw my parents reading to themselves — magazines, newspapers, National Geographic, books.
My parents read to us — endless kids books, all of the Little House books, Winnie the Pooh, Swiss Family Robinson.
We didn’t have a television until I was eight years old and we lived way out in the sticks. Reading was an available activity when there wasn’t much else to do.
We almost always got books we wanted, at the library or at the bookstore.
They didn’t really push “nutritious” books. Sometimes they made available books that we could read, but mostly if we were reading, that was okay, even if it was endless sludge (and it frequently was).
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mawado’s just articulated a thought that I’ve had but never quite been able to articulate. Brilliant. Why, though, are the winners of awards for younger children almost always really good (and likeable) whereas the winners for awards for literature for anyone over the age of 8 maudlin and traumatic?
I thoroughly approve, btw way, of the “let him read whatever he’ll read” sentiment (unlike my attitude toward TV, as you know). I read about 500 books in my years 8-10, all of them absolute crap (Enid Blyton, Hardy Boys, 3 Investigators, etc), but my god did it get me used to reading, and fast.
On a different tack, if its over 40 years old and still in print, its got something going for it. Oh, I know, my daughter (9) absolutely loved the Big Brain books.
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I would also say that whenever I’ve picked up “guides to great kids books” I have shuddered by the list of lame books on the list and the lack of cool stuff.
It’s most likely artists rather than writers who jury the Caldecott Medals (the prize picture books, generally for really young kids). The prize is for the pictures, and a great collaboration between an illustrator and writer is what tends to make for a great book for little ones. (I know this because I have a relation who teaches illustration at an art school.)
In contrast, the Newberry Medals for youth fiction are definitely not as impressive. problematic. I don’t know who picks them … although I remember hearing that faculty from the Bank Street College of Education are involves. I would imagine that they are heavily promoted by the publishers, so they are probably just as corrupt and goofy as the Oscars.
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I’m a long time elementary school librarian, an avid reader and the mother of 2 bright intelligent college graduate daughters who not avid reader. Their father is also an avid reader and we did everything one is supposed to do to produce bookworms and failed. Both read, read well but it’s not their first choice of activties.
I’ve noticed the same thing at school -some kids are born with an inborn passion to read everything from the back of the cereal box to War & Peace. Other’s would rather do something else. I tell the kids that they must learn to read and read well, it’s a survial skill in todays world. It’s wonderful if they love it but not everyone does. I tell them that I hate driving a car, I would much rather live in a town with mass transit. But I don’t, I have to drive to survive so I do. It’s the same with reading.
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Fun discussion with some unexpected heat.
There’s a real tension between those who feel that I am destroying my boy’s innate boyness by fiddling with his natural desires and those who feel that a little helpful nudging never hurt a kid. Before I got involved in the special education world a few years ago (thanks to Ian, age 4), I would have probably been closer to the natural approach. Now I’m more in the middle.
Jonah does have a wide latitude about what books to read and when. But I have to offer some direction, gentle incentives and pro-book environments. Some people may call that controlling. I just call it parenting.
It’s funny how many commenters have the unlimited book philosophy. We do, too. When we lived in the city apartment, I was a real toy Nazi. Big toys were the enemy. But books were always cool. We visit book stores often, and the kids always come out with one book each.
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Incorporating all the advice so far, (non-fiction, boys’ book, grade level appropriate, not an award winner), I’ve got a recommendation:
“The Journey That Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey” by Louise Borden
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As the mother of a 14 year old and a 19 year old, I say–give up your notion that any kid will re-create your childhood. He’s not you, the world is different, get used to it.
Boys are far more visual (that’s why Playboy has pictures) than girls. Graphic novels, comic books, etc. are a great way to lure them in. Magazines about stuff he likes (not that you like) trucks, cars, planes, animals.
Removing the TV and the computer just delays the problem. TV isn’t the enemy–boys learn from pictures, so let him watch Animal Planet and then read about the animals he likes.
Computer games, esp. ones with text (Monkey Island is great) are fine, with limits. Read Steve Johnson’s book for some insight.
Limited sports is a bad strategy, esp for boys. (It’s a time suck for you, not for him) If he’s running around and actually playing, let him go.
Both my kids are decent readers–my son spent a year in Hungary as an exchange student (yes, he learned Hungarian) and did a lot of reading over there.
But the big thing–don’t copy what works for girls. Boys are different, learn differently and have different motivations.
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I personally started reading with comic books, which led to adventure stories, which led to science fiction and mysteries and all kinds of books.
My daughter was lucky enough to have good elementary teachers and parents who valued reading. We read to her, gave her lots of choices of books, comics, etc. and let her pick what she wanted. Each time a Harry Potter came out, we all read it together aloud. Now she reads a wide variety of material, from comics to classics and enjoys it all.
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Another thing that has really gotten my reluctant reader going: magazines, especially National Geographic Kids. Even (shudder) a Pokemon or Yugioh magazine helps.
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I find it fascinating that some people see the Newbery (and other awards) as the kiss of death. I read a lot Newbery books as a kid, and actually looked for the gold medal symbol as a recommendation.
I also think that you are right in a sense when you observe that voracious readers read above grade level. Books designed for first and second graders are BORING. Many more interesting books are available if you can read above grade level. However, I think the kid needs to WANT the challenge. When I was in first grade, my mother read me the Chronicles of Narnia. I loved The Voyage of the Dawn Treader so much that I wanted to read it again, myself. And I did. You might be able to motivate him to read challenging books if you can find something he really loves and read it together out loud.
I also think that one of the things that made me into a reader is that my parents were readers. We went to the library together regularly, and we all took home a stack of books to read. My parents often read for pleasure in the evenings, instead of watching TV. They didn’t read a lot of “literature” (in fact, IMO, they read a lot of stuff that is pretty trashy)–but the example sunk in. The house was always full of books: new books, library books, used books.
I might have been a reader anyway, but this stuff certainly didn’t hurt.
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Heh. Echoing KateCOe, computer games are not the enemy of reading. If your boy likes computer games, buy him the cheat guides. Almost every popular game will have 1-3 guides with lots of extra detail about the game. Then he’ll be motivated to read them and discover, in a very personal way, one of the primary reasons reading is not just fun but useful.
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As a voracious reader from early on, I think you’ve gotten a lot of good suggestions
I would underscore (and bold, and italicize) the “read to him,” advice. I was reading well, WELL beyond grade level long before my parents stopped reading to me. My dad read me “The Lord of the Rings” (he was also teaching it to his high school classes) when I was 7. I was able to read it – but I wanted *him* to read it — it also helped me get past the scary bits.
I don’t know that TV in itself makes a huge difference. My parents didn’t limit it (other than by only having one TV, not getting cable until I was in Jr. High, and not letting me watch things that pissed off my dad when he was around — hence, no “Happy Days” or “Dukes of Hazzard” for me!) I watched enough Looney Toons to soften my brain right up, and yet I’m a voracious reader.
I also, as a kid, went through a phase of “I like my history real,” where I liked nonfiction better, and I loved those giant books with lots of pictures of historic sites, battles, mummies, etc. Then I found science fiction — another thing boys often like a lot – and that sucked me in.
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Is anyone else a little uncomfortable with sweeping statements like, “Boys are different, learn differently and have different motivations.” I know there are some proven tendencies that split along gender lines (i.e. the whole spatial visualization thing) but I have certainly met girls who are very active and don’t love to read, just as I’ve known boys who like novels.
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I wonder whether Bill Gates was a reader as a kid? Or Warren Buffett? Are people who go to places like MIT readers or do they succeed by using Legos to build buildings instead of reading about them?
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If your boy likes computer games, buy him the cheat guides. Almost every popular game will have 1-3 guides with lots of extra detail about the game. Then he’ll be motivated to read them and discover, in a very personal way, one of the primary reasons reading is not just fun but useful.
And he might just find the next great novelist! The Original Video Game Cheat Guide — for Space Invaders for the Atari 2600 — was written by Martin Amis! (Google “Invasion of the Space Invaders”).
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Hmm…I posted something on my own blog about the Newbery winners, and tried to trackback, but got a weird error message about guavas. I assume this is part of your on-going war against blog spam?
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I don’t know enough about award winning children’s fiction to say anything about it, but as a kid, I found “realistic” and “relevant” children’s stories (Judy Blume) dreary and read very little of the stuff. Despite being a girl, I have never had any interest in reading about 12-year-old girls moping around, waiting for their periods. More dragons, please!
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I’m with Jen. I find it disturbing that there’s a widely held presumption among many that boys are just naturally vastly different from girls, with the corollary that boys want to/need to run around and “be boys” while girls as a group are somehow biologically more capable of sitting quietly and reading. True of some but not of others, and it’s unfair to make assumptions based solely on the gender of the child. After recently reading a lot of academic literature about gender differences in the classroom, I can pretty confidently say that boys and girls are more similar in their needs (time to run around, exposure to an array of materials, choice in what they want to read or work on) than they are different. Of the different behaviors that do emerge, most if not all could reasonably be attributed to cultural pressures, outright training, and expectations of behavior rather than essential nature. Maybe the differences are hardwired, maybe they’re not. (Note that I’m NOT saying that the genders are exactly the same, but that the jury is out on where the line between social conditioning and nature lies.) Lots of boys get the message that it’s not cool to read and to care about school and that competence at athletics is more important than excellence at academics; those often-hidden influences shouldn’t be underestimated.
Many of the observations and suggestions in the comments are interesting, helpful, worth trying, though who knows what will work or not work with any individual child. I’ve got an advantage over those who appear alarmed that Laura is trying to “make” her child over in her childhood image, because I know her, and Jonah, too, and while I mentioned that it’s possible her methods may backfire, I also know she’s perceptive enough to see it coming and change her tactics to suit Jonah’s needs. And he’s a pretty confident and expressive kid, so I don’t think there will be doubt about what’s working and what’s not.
And of course I can’t go without saying that Joel’s experience of women’s reading habits seems rather a problem with circle of acquaintance, not with natural proclivities. Also a privileging of one’s own personal tastes over the obviously poor judgments of others who prefer something different.
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Thanks, Suze. Since I’ve been blogging, I’ve been accused of much worse than being a controlling parent. Gotta love the Internet. I don’t take anything personally anymore. I was amused at how quickly people jumped to the image of me as an oppressive witch. It probably demonstrates something very disturbing about images of women or mothers or something, but I’m too hot to deconstruct it.
I do think that there are differences between boys and girls. However, there is a huge range of behavior with many outliers. And I’m not sure that liking fiction is necessarily a girl thing. There are a lot of great novels that are aimed at boys. We just came back from the movies, and they had a trailer for “How to Eat Fried Worms” I loved that book as a kid. As we watched the trailer, Jonah had a huge smile on his face. Guess what book I’m going to buy tomorrow?
off to the pool….
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Interesting post. My 6 year old son reads the Lego magazine cover to cover when it comes in the mail.
Regarding Superman, DC comics has a line called DC Adventures, based on their Justice League, Superman & Batman animated shows. I’m buying some of those for our vacation in a couple of weeks.
And from there, I’d look into the Star Wars books. I haven’t researched it yet but there seems to be a well-developed line of books for young readers.
But as you can see, I’m of the “give the kid the subject matter he wants” school of thought, we long as it’s text!
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There are a lot of good ideas here, many of which were what my mother did with me. But there is one idea that I think helped drive the love of reading home. My mother “allowed” me to get away with reading at times that I “should” have been doing something else (ie. church services, family visits, and such). Now given this got me in trouble in school as I ended up reading my own books during class, but I don’t think my mother ever saw this as much of a problem as my teachers did. The idea that you can do something that you are not supposed to appealed to the innate rebel in me.
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If your kids don’t get carsick, let them read in the car. If you get carsick when you read in the car, don’t assume that your kids will. Before we leave the house, I ask, “do you have a book?” Driving to and from activities eats up a huge amount of time, which you can put to good use.
We did not have access to a t.v. in the summers, and my sister and I read through childhood, into adulthood. As parents, we limit t.v. access through the year, and don’t have access to t.v.s for weeks at a time. In the summer, many kids are finally tired out enough to sit down and pay attention to a book. That tired feeling will also lead them to demand t.v.
http://www.guysread.com/ has a list of good books. The author, Jon Scieszka, has written a host of books my kids have enjoyed, from _Science Curse_ to the Time Warp Trio chapter books. Magazines are also great; both my daughter and my son love “Boys Life”, published by the Boy Scouts.
Reading and sports aren’t an either/or choice; many schools strive to produce the ideal scholar/athlete. There is plenty of time for a first grader to develop as an athlete, though, and no need for intense, year-round training of a six year old. Reading, though, does respond to sheer volume of books read. I feel it’s an unnatural skill which a reader must practice constantly.
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Just a comment or two on the Newbery/Caldecott winners: both awards are given by the American Library Association. The committees that choose the winners are made up of librarians who specialize in the area: Caldecott awards pictures/illustration, Newbery awards novels. I knew a Caldecott committee member once and her comments on what made a winning picture book were pretty insightful. I also disagree that the Newbery award-winners are uniformly bleak–but I also actually really liked the bleak weepies as a kid (still do). They reflected little or nothing in my own life and gave me a great way to experiment with emotions and psychological states safely.
I think what you’re doing is great, Laura. You are tailoring your practice to your own child (so, some kids don’t like the newbery award winners? Don’t push them!). You are creating a “literature-rich” environment.
I don’t know that my parents worked to make readers, but they still did it, mostly by default: there wasn’t a whole lot else to do in our house, much of the time, and my dad loved to read aloud to us. So we heard books way above grade level (The Fellowship of the Ring when I was five!) and that pushed us to read to ourselves above grade level.
This comment is turning into its own post so I may have to stop, but I have a lot more to say about books for kids on my own blog, every now and then, and in my column as well (http://www.literarymama.com/columns/midlifemama)
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Dungeons and Dragons. It is a game that encourages math and spacial skills while requiring reading. You would be surprised at the number of guys who fell in love with reading or were pushed to read because of that game.
It has the added benefit of being social.
I love to read and found a passion for it very early. I started with the Hardy Boys and moved on to science fiction and fantasy. Reading led me to D&D, but most people I know who play started reading because of the game.
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Another vote for comic books! I write and draw comics, and loved them as a child, and my experience has always been that it’s not the poor readers who are reading comics. Comics are faster to read than prose, but that’s not the same thing as being “easy”. Comics require a slightly different set of skills — you have to understand jumps in time and place, have to be able to follow multiple narratives at the same time on occasion. Adults who have never read comics have to be taught how to interpret what’s going on — it’s visual, but the narrative is not passively received.
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If you look at the list of Newbery Awards winners , (http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/newberymedal/newberywinners/medalwinners.htm), you may see books you loved as a child.
These books were all Newbery winners: Criss Cross,The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread,Crispin: The Cross of Lead , A Year Down Yonder, Holes, The View from Saturday, Shiloh, Maniac Magee, Sarah, Plain and Tall, The Hero and the Crown, A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal, 1830-1832 , The Westing Game, The Grey King, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, Sounder , The High King, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, It’s Like This, Cat, A Wrinkle in Time , The Witch of Blackbird Pond , Ginger Pye, King of the Wind, Rabbit Hill , Johnny Tremain , The Matchlock Gun, Daniel Boone, Smoky, the Cowhorse, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle.
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Building on the Dungeons and Dragons idea:
Role-playing in general is great. It got my husband reading as a kid, mostly sci-fi stuff so he could create his own game (complete with a detailed hexadecimal math system I don’t completely understand. He was 10). I’m in my early 20’s now and didn’t get into role-playing until my teens years, but I can say that the stuff took me in reading directions I never would have found alone. I swear by White Wolf, a techo-goth punk world, and GURPS, a copmletely generic system that works with any world and that has susprisingly detailed sourcebooks for just about every history period, mythology, and fantasy realm. I’ve never found a factual error in them (though I found the comment about sailing “For the sake of simplicity, this book refers to all one masted vessels as sloops, all three masted vessels as ships,”… so intriguing that I now know more than any twenty something should on 17th century naval history.
Basically, the GURPS sourcebooks are fun to read, have lots of fun art and sidebars, and list their sources.
Janine (an avid role-player but not employed by GURPS)
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I’ve been trying to encourage my seven-year-old son to read without putting too much pressure on him. The stories he’s most interested in are still too hard for him, and the stuff he can read alone seems babyish. I finally found the perfect book! Animal Jokes, full of really corny jokes that he can read himself to the whole family. It’s the first time I’ve seen his eyes light up while reading, which has been fun.
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I finished my ‘get my son to read’ project last October 11th, (it was a Tuesday). It started about five years earlier. It involved reading books to him that were exciting. Some books were read more than once. It also involved showing that i was interested in reading. So instead of reading Harry Potter in a quiet room by myself, i’d read it in the living room, or some other public room in the house. It involved taking him to movies for books he’d read. For the Harry series, at first, it was books that i’d read to him. But now he has to read them himself.
Before October 11th, when he had a reading assignment, i had to sit next to him to make sure he actually did it. Then i had to quiz him on features of the text he’d read. It was pulling teeth. These were often five minute assignments. Since punishment doesn’t work, there were all sorts of prizes to get him to do the things he needed to do. But on October 11th, he crossed the magic barrier into reading for enjoyment. He had a Goosebumps book, and consumed it in a single sitting. I went to the library every couple days to get another set of books. Magic Tree House, etc. At Christmas, the Narnia movie was out, so i bought a copy of the book. He could see the movie once he’d read it. I couple days later, we saw the movie. In late January, his reading skills were good enough to start his own reading of the first Harry Potter book. He’s now reading book five. Book five is important. Now i’ll be able to tell him that he read an 870 page book in 3rd grade – so whatever he’s looking at is no big deal.
I leave certain comic books and magazines around the house for him to discover.
The current project is to make him a math wiz. To that end, i’ve gotten him through the soroban, and related finger math. Emphasis is on reliablity. Anything less leads to mathophobia. He’ll read stuff all summer without prompting. We’re working on math all summer.
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“How to Eat Fried Worms” is a great choice! I’ll have to get that for my early-elementary boy as well.
How about some sports books, Laura? I had no interest in them, personally, but after we bought one for a friend’s birthday (at his dad’s recommendation), my kiddo started reading them and really enjoying them, and I surprisingly was enjoying them with him.
Fred Bowen has some short chapter books about baseball that are fun and perfect for first or second or third grade readers. They always include an interesting bit of baseball history in the story (and then a page about it at the end), and reasonably interesting conflicts for the protagonist. Dan Gutman has a whole series (at a higher grade reading level) about a kid who can travel back in time when he holds a baseball card, to meet the player on the card and do things with him/her. The first one is “Honus and Me.”
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Found this discussion via Mrs. Coulter, and found it interesting! I’m so thrilled to hear from so many parents who value reading, and who know what a gift it is.
I’ve been a children’s librarian (master’s degree from UC Berkeley) in a public library for 12 years now, and I served on last year’s Caldecott committee (that’s the picture book award … I’d be happy to entertain your comments on the American Library Association’s other literary awards, hee hee).
One of the very best parts of my job is making a connection between the right book and the right child at the right time. I know thousands of books and have talked to hundreds of kids. I can make suggestions that go beyond award-winners and my own childhood experiences. And I bet your local children’s librarian is the same. Our enthusiasm and experience are your tax dollars at work — use us!
Here’s another piece of advice: most young readers (whether reluctant or avid) could use a reading ally — that is, someone who thinks reading is fun, values the types of books the child reads, and likes to talk about books. This could be a peer, a parent, a teacher, or (naturally) a children’s librarian. It’s tricky when it’s an authority figure like a parent or teacher, because it needs to be someone who doesn’t judge, push, grade, quiz, criticize, or otherwise spoil the fun. It can NEVER be someone who says, “I need a book for my son, but doesn’t like to read” or “You aren’t going to read that baby book, are you?”
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“Brandon had one of his best days of the year….”
http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_3_schools_boys.html
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Wow, what a discussion. Laura, you are great to put up with so many people criticizing what you are doing — even when they don’t seem to be reading what you wrote. I agree with Suze. I don’t know you personally, but I have been a reader for quite a while. You know your sons, you are trying to help them, and, as you say, you are parenting. So I say good job!
My daughter, also just finished with first grade, loves to read at night when maybe she should be sleeping. And sometimes I wonder if there is a way to get her to read slightly more challenging things. But I know that reading, whatever she choses, is a good thing! And I look forward to learning more about her as I find out what she wants to read.
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Hi,
I grew up as a reluctant reader. Now I write action-adventures & mysteries, especially for boys 8 and up, that kids hate to put down. My web site is at http://www.maxbooks.9k.com and my Books for Boys blog is at http://booksandboys.blogspot.com
Ranked by Accelerated Reader
Max Elliot Anderson
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