Riveting Reads: Boys into Books 11-14

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Do boys read?

‘Boys do read – sometimes more than girls. They just don’t talk about it as much, or pretend they’re reading, as some girls do, to keep you happy!’ The general assumption that boys don’t read, as this comment from Eileen Armstrong illustrates, needs challenging in several ways.

If we interpret the question in a narrow sense – do boys use the library to borrow fiction?, for example – we’ll miss out a lot of boys’ reading that is happening around us. Many boys visit the library to browse, without borrowing; they may borrow non-fiction, graphic novels, or joke books; outside school, boys may be reading magazines about computers, reading adverts for bikes in newspapers, reading text messages, reading emails and websites on screen, reading comics, reading CD sleeves, Sky TV listings, takeaway menus… and much more. You may want them to discover the pleasure of reading fiction, but it’s important to value their own choices, and start from where they are.

It’s important not to get in to the mindset of assuming boys don’t read. As well as the range of reading above, there are plenty of boys who are very keen readers, and read a lot – including meaty fiction titles, award winners, and adult novels. These boys are our strongest weapon, because we can use their enthusiasm to spread the word to others. As boys move up to your school, assume from the outset that they are readers – or that they are going to be! – and make it your school’s job to feed their enthusiasm, reveal their hidden reader, or tempt them to read even more.

Nationally, there’s concern about boys’ achievement, and the more we can encourage boys to read, the more it will help their overall progress. For some recent evidence on boys’ reading, look at:

Young People and Reading (National Literacy Trust, 2005), a study carried out as part of the Reading Champions project.
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Research/Reading_Champions_survey.pdf
Children’s and Young People’s Reading Habits (National Literacy Trust, 2005), a survey carried out as part of the Reading Connects project
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Research/Reading_Connects_survey.pdf
Social Inclusion and Reading: an Exploration (National Literacy Trust, 2006), a study based on the Reading Connects survey above.
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Research/SocInc.pdf

You will also find data of interest in the two recent international reading surveys:

Reading all over the world: PIRLS national report for England (National Foundation for Educational Research, 2003. ISBN: 1903880432), and…
Literacy Skills for the world of Tomorrow: further results from PISA 2000 (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2003. ISBN: 9264102868)

For some even more important evidence, look at your own data. Do you fully exploit the information available from your library management system? Do you know the titles most read by boys, individual boys’ reading patterns, and so on? Do you have a mechanism for recording book use in the library itself? Do you talk to boys (especially non-users), and their parents? Do you also know who the keenest readers are? You may not – because boys don’t own up to it! – but they can be your allies, working with you as role models and reading champions.

Riveting Reads: Boys into Books 11-14

Start | Foreword | Introduction | Browse Booklist | Download PDF | Appendices

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< Why should you read the introduction? Is it my problem? >

Do boys read?

< Why should you read the introduction? Is it my problem? >

Boys Into Books

Introduction Overview