BBC News has an article: Call for boys’ own bookshelves that quotes British Education Secretary Alan Johnson has saying that “We need a boys’ bookshelf in every secondary school library in the country, containing positive, modern, relevant role models for working class boys.” Um, or you could just hire a librarian who would happily build a collection that would not have to be labeled and distinct because he/she could also be there to fit the best book to that particular child. Sounds like collection development is needed not a special boy shelf. And what happens when the boys read through those boy books? As we would all want them to. Are they then shunted to the pink and glittery shelf of girls’ books? How about we just build great school libraries that will speak to both boys and girls of all social classes. There are so many books out there that will capture children heart, line and sinker. I know that boys are falling behind, that reading is looked on as being somehow not masculine enough, and that there are books that boys will appreciate, but segregating them on a separate shelf is not the answer. I have no problem with recommended lists or websites full of great boy reads. But we have to keep our libraries equal and accessible to all.
5 thoughts on “Boys Books Rant”
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Waking Brain Cells 
Oh how I agree with you, Tasha! Besides, my daughter likes all these books too. Should she have to access the “boy shelf” in order to check them out?
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No, sorry, she would have to stick to the pink shelves filled with Barbie and My Little Pony books. OK, she can have Hello Kitty too.
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I have two girls, so this isn’t really an issue with me, nor have I tried looking for boys books. However, a mom I work with, who has 2 boys, has told me how hard it is to find good books for boys, i.e. ones that interest them as they grow older and become interested in chapter books. We talked about that for a while, and everything I could think of, she and her boys had already found and read. What I really think she was saying, the selection is really narrow, so that the interests of a lot of reading children aren’t represented.
Look at the lists of what is published for boys. If its not fantasy – boy/girl discovers his/her secret magical DNA and set out to discover dark secrets (lotsa kids read Harry Potter, so we’ll publish a billion variations!)- or a souped up comic book with a watered-down, dumbed-down story line with sexy looking babes, there doesn’t seem to be much coming out of the publishing houses that going to appeal to a broad group of boys without Asperger’s Syndrome.
I think you’re right that a lot of the problem probably could be solved with a good librarian who selects a list with a wide net, and resisted the big publishing house narrowly focused, home-run hunting philosophy.
If I think about the branch library where my children and I go, the books for the younger readers are very diverse, but as I browse over into the books for the older readers, it does seem to have an increasing focus on one or another magical moppet discovering dark secrets and hidden powers, and they have 2 copies of every volume of each and every series.
There’s also the attack of the Princess Diaries clones. I’m not even going there – no, maybe I will. Perhaps the problem isn’t with boy’s books only.
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Amen to that! As the parent of a boy who has never liked “boy” books, I agree with Kelly that it would force children of both genders to either choose gender-stereotyped books or potentially embarrass themselves by going to the “wrong” shelf.
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I’m probably not recommending anything new here, but has anyone checked out the Hank Zipzer series by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver? I’ve recommended this series to one of my nephews and a co-worker’s son. They loved them and in turn recommended them to their school librarians who agreed to add them to the school’s library shelves. I’m sure Jerry Spinelli’s books have been recommended to boys and possibly Carl Hiassen’s middle-grade/YA books too. How about The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo or When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt? Williwaw by Tom Bodett is a great read as is anything by Cornelia Funke. Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet and Jean Craighead George’s My Side of the Mountain and it’s sequels both offer great “survival” stories many boys like. I am always looking for books that my son will enjoy once he’s an independent reader (many, many, many moons away still – he’s only 4!) and fortunately our book collection is growing. Great site here! Keep up the good work!
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