Great books for YOUR boy

When looking for great books for our boys recommended reading lists can be helpful, but beware. It’s how we use these reading lists that determines their helpfulness. Some recommended books will be just perfect for your boy, and others may be not to his liking.

We can generalise and say that there are specific topics and themes that interest boys more than others, but within this vast arena we need to remind ourselves that individual reading tastes and abilities can vary greatly.

Also, what is “cool” or “sweet” (as in the new vernacular of my 7 year-old), may become “babyish” or “boring” as your boy grows older.

I think it’s helpful to consult recommended reading lists, but to then help your child choose something that will be just right for him. It goes without saying that your child should be involved in choosing his own books to read.

To choose a great book quickly and easily we apply two simple rules:

The book must be:
1. really, really, really exciting.
2. at the appropriate reading level.

The first rule is easy. Watching your boy’s reaction when he picks up a book and flicks through it will determine his level of interest. If I hear him say “cool”, “wow”, “awesome” and “sweet” I know it will be a winner.

The second rule requires some more input from you. As a parent you would be aware of your son’s reading ability given that you listen to him read school readers and other books at home. By checking the amount of text, the complexity of the text, the length of the book, the basic storyline and the degree of supporting visuals you can make a pretty accurate judgement as to whether your child will achieve reading success.

We have found that in most cases where our sons’ don’t like a book it’s because of one (or both) of these two rules has been broken. So, armed with your two simple rules, have fun next time you visit the local library, bookshop, on-line bookstore, or your own bookshelf.

Too stinky for words

Rude stuff rocks in this house. With two young boys who are always on the look out for laughs and action any book that involves toilet humour is on the top of their reading list.

Walter the Farting Dog is Archie's perennial favourite. He never tires of reading about Walter, the smelly pooch, saving the day by blasting the would-be robbers out of the lounge-room window with the biggest fart you have ever heard (or smelt). Of course, Walter becomes the hero and is saved from being sent to the pound by his long suffering family.

Dr Dog also gets a regular thumbing given that it involves a grandpa on an exploding toilet. Tops! Oscar, who is now seven, was given this brilliant book when he was born and it's now a tradition of ours to do the same for any friend or family member who welcomes a little one into the world. They will thank us one day.

How do you know what he knows?

It’s easy to think that once we’ve been through the daily ritual of reading the school reader, that the job is done. Not so. As reading is about gaining meaning from text we need to see what our children have understood about what they have read. Or in reading terms, we need to check their comprehension.

Many children can show reading fluency - being good at decoding words and drawing upon picture clues - but their understating of the finer details of the story may be minimal.

Blank’s Levels of Questioning helps us to know what questions to ask to check comprehension. Level 1 questions are the most direct with level 4 questions probing understanding to a greater degree.

Just tonight after Oscar read a story about what to do if there’s a fire in the house I asked him, “What would you do if you smelled smoke?” He replied with a cheeky grin, “I’d check to see if dad was cooking a bbq!”

Try a few of these questions with your child. You may be surprised at his answers!

Blank’s Levels of Questioning

Level 1 – Right There
Find one like this.
What’s this?
What colour is this?
What did the...say?
What can you see?
Show me the...
Is it X or Y?
Who is this?

Level 2 – Think and Search
Find one that is/can...
What’s happening?
Who is...?
When did...?
Where’s the...?
Finish this sentence...
What is this for?
Tell me about this thing?
What does it do?
Find one that is X and Y.
How are these different?
What else is X? (category)
What else could they...?

Level 3 – The Author and You
What will happen next?
What is...going to say?
How did he...?
How else could he do it?
How are these the same?
What’s your favourite...?
Tell me one that’s not...
What is a...?
Which one is...?
How did he feel?
What have they done so far?

Level 4 – In Your Head
What will happen if he...?
Why did you pick that one?
How did that happen?
What could he do?
What would you do if...?
Why is it made of that?
How can we tell?
Why can’t he...?
Why do you like that one?
If you were X, what would you say/do?

(Reproduced thanks to the grade 1 teachers at Immanuel Lutheran College, Sunshine Coast, Australia)

Who's the coolest guy in town?

Meet Jimmy Ka-Chow, inventor-extraordinaire. He's one cool - and clever - dude. If you have a problem, chances are Jimmy has invented something to deal with it. Like his "super-speller spelling pencil." Just program your spelling words into the hidden key pad on your pencil and when it comes time to write your spelling words, your pencil takes over. Ka-Chow!!! It's 100% accurate guaranteed...most of the time. Now...how to stop the girls from kissing the boys? If you want to read more about Jimmy's inventions, sign up to follow our blog and we'll let you know when he's ready to launch!

We learn...

10% of what we read
20% of what we hear
30% of what we see
50% of both what we see and hear
70% of what is discussed
80% of what we personally experience
95% of what we teach to someone else

(W. Glasser)

Quick tip - when reading with your child discuss what he is reading, relate it back to his experiences if possible, and get him to teach you something related to the book. Not only will it help develop his reading skills, but he’s likely to enjoy telling you what he knows too!

What boys DO like - a brave appraisal

This thought-provoking extract is taken from James Moloney's book, Boys and Books (ABC, 2000) http://www.jamesmoloney.com.au/

To answer a question such as "What DO boys like to read?" is almost impossible. All manner of conflicting generalisations get in the way. For example, are we talking about willing readers or reluctant readers. Are we looking for books a boy will read by himself or books to read to a boy.
By way of introducing this section, I will blaze ahead regardless with a few point distilled from my years as a librarian in an all boys school. More detailed consideration and practical assessments of what we parents (and teacher) can do will follow.

* It is a mistake to believe that boys in general and reluctant readers in particular, do not like fiction. It is often the type of fiction presented to them that is the source of their rejection. On the whole, boys enjoy books which place action ahead of emotion and where what the characters do is more important that what the characters think or feel. Hence, the apparent preference for the action novel. These are the equivalent of thrillers and detective stories in adult reading matter. They often come in series to help marketing.

* Boys tend to like books which match their image of themselves. They want to be able to identify themselves and what they would like to be and do. This is why books about characters engaged in sport have always held at least an initial attraction for boys.

* Unfortunately, many novels with sporting action and themes fail because they do not deliver what the boy is expecting. This is often the unrealistic hope that reading the book will be just like playing the game. Sorry boys - no can do. There is a fundamental difference between doing something and reading about it. Other boys are lost when the story does not go where they want it to go which is in a direction close to their own personal experience. Few sport centred novels live up to expectation.

* Boys love to have fun so they want books that are fun, that make them laugh and appeal to their sense of madcap mayhem. This is all tied up with their image of the quintessential boy and as much as boyishness can be defined and distilled, they love to find it in the books they read. Few writers are able to capture that "boyishness" in print.

* A significant part of the mayhem that boys love is poking fun at others, especially adults. Boys continually find themselves told to behave, to be tidier and less boisterous so books where the characters triumphantly break out of these restrictions are greatly prized.

* Boys have an image of themselves as anarchic beings bringing chaos to stultifying order, even when they are the gentlest and most amenable lambs you would hope to have in the house. Used cynically, this can serve to re-enforce the most destructive and dehumanising aspects of masculine stereotypes. Yet such cynicism badly misreads what boys are about. Yes, they love tales of subversion but this subversion is oddly true to a sense of justice and right. Boys will grin and cheer when the villain comes to a sticky or humiliating end but only when it is clear that such a fate is richly deserved.

Get boys to "act up" in class

I love hearing about good ideas. Stealing them is even better (with permission, of course!)

Recently an experienced early childhood teacher told me about an idea they had used in the UK to engage young boys with reading. They devised a “touchy-feely” bag filled with objects relating to the particular story they were reading. The boys were then asked to pull out an object from the bag and to use it to tell the story they had just heard. The anticipation of what they would find in the bag was palpable. What young boy could resist the temptation to feel around inside the bag to find something interesting?

It’s a great example of how the passive activity of reading can be turned into an action-oriented, competitive activity that plays to boys’ strengths. Acting up in class has its advantages!

Top 5 hot topics for young boys

Recently we surveyed parents about what their young boys (aged 5 to 8+) are interested in reading about. We wanted to know what topics get young boys really excited.

So, here are the top 5 hot topics for young boys:

1. Science
2. Superheroes
3. Dinosaurs
4. Sport
5. Machines

Two great books for parents

Two books I would highly recommend to parents of young children are from two of Australia’s most loved children’s authors, Mem Fox www.memfox.net and Paul Jennings www.pauljennings.com.au. These authors write just as engagingly for adults as they do for children, and their books on how to help our kids develop a love of reading are witty, insightful and very practical.

In The Reading Bug and how to help your child catch it, Paul Jennings provides a stack of practical advice to parents wanting to help their children learn to read. He has recently released a new edition with an extra chapter dedicated to boys (yay!) and an updated list of recommended reads.

“If you are a parent you already have the major ingredient to infect a child with the reading bug — love. You love your kids and children love to be loved. Inject this into the reading situation and you will succeed.” Paul Jennings

In Reading Magic, Mem Fox humorously hammers home the importance of regularly reading aloud to our kids from birth. She covers what to read, when to read, and how to read. She suggests a nightly ritual of reading aloud to our children and includes specific tips on how to read expressively by varying our facial expressions and voice.

Jennings and Fox are two powerhouses in Australian children’s literature and in the teaching of reading. What they have to say is important, helpful and practical — minus the jargon.

Reading strategies to use at home

After my last entry I promised a few tips on reading strategies we can use with our kids. At the outset, I have to say, please, please don’t take the fun out of the reading experience and turn it into a painful, protracted exercise in making your child get every word correct.

If we take the fun, joy and love out of reading what are we reading for? We don’t want our kids to view books in the same light as brussel sprouts! “Eat your greens and read your reader,” would be a worrying catchcry.

It’s also good to remember that learning to read isn’t a race. Think of learning to read as an enjoyable stroll through many interesting and wondrous places where we can, and should, stop to savour each reading milestone – it is truly amazing to see our children recognise words, read phrases, understand story lines, and feel the excitement of learning to read. Celebrate their achievements.

Progressing a child quickly through reading levels against his will, will not have much benefit if it’s at the expense of his enjoyment of books. There’s little use in a child being a proficient reader if he doesn’t want to pick up a book. Take cues from your child about his willingness, enthusiasm and readiness to move onto more difficult books. Your child’s teacher will also be in tune with how your child is progressing and what he is ready for, so talk together about what is a good rate of progress for your child.

When reading with our kids, we not only want to enjoy and savour the experience, but we also want to be as helpful as possible. There are many great little reading prompts we can use when our child stumbles over a word. Not all of these prompts are useful all of the time, but think of them as a variety of ‘word cracking tools’ that you and your child can pick and choose from at any given moment.

Reading prompts (or word cracking tools):

- Does it make sense?
- Does it look right?
- Does it sound right?
- Look for parts that you know.
- Do you know another word like that?
- Get your mouth ready.
- Go back and re-read.
- Skip the word and go on.

Here’s an example of using some of these reading prompts.

Let’s say the sentence says:

This nest is for a bird.

Your child says:

This nest is far a bird.

Obviously the word far doesn’t make sense in this context and indicates that your child hasn’t read for meaning. First give him a chance to self-correct. He may realise it doesn’t make sense and go back to have another go.

If he doesn’t self-correct you could ask, “Does it make sense?”

Then you could say, “Let’s go back and re-read the sentence.” This will give him a chance to have another go at the word.

If he doesn’t recognise the word you could say, “Look for parts that you know.” He might recognise or in which case you could ask him what the first letter f sounds like. Then you could ask him to put the f sound with the word or. (Be careful not to suggest to sound out each letter of the word, as for is not spelt how it sounds.)

If he has trouble with the f sound you could say, “Get your mouth ready” and show him where his teeth and lips go to make the sound.

If he says the word correctly, congratulate him on working hard at cracking the word. Good job detective! If he is still having trouble at this point I would suggest telling him the word and moving on. There will be many more opportunities for him to see, read and write this word. Reading should be fun, not frustrating.

So have fun, go at the right pace, help him develop his arsenal of word cracking tools, and savour the wondrous journey of learning to read with your child.

A picture paints a thousand words

Before I have another restless night’s sleep I thought I would get this off my chest! Not much keeps me awake, but I’ve pondered this a few times now in the wee hours of the morning when I should be getting my full eight hours.

I can’t count the number of times a parent (usually a mum, but also one father who shall remain nameless) has divulged that they use a reading strategy with their young child that I believe should be banned by the Geneva Convention! Covering up the pictures to test that their child is “really” reading words and not just “guessing” the words from the visual clues seems to be a common, but problematic occurrence.

In the early stages of learning to read, children need the support of visual clues to help them decipher what the words might say. It’s one of a number of very helpful and necessary reading strategies that teachers teach children to use. If the child is having trouble working out a particular word, we can ask, “Can you look at the picture and work out what the word might say?” Children need to see a word many times before they can instantly recognise it. So what if they don’t really know what a word says, but they’ve “guessed” it right at that particular time? Next time they read the word they might just get it right without looking at the picture. Yay!

School readers are written and illustrated in very specific ways to enable young readers to experience reading success. The most commonly occurring sight words (also known as high frequency words or 100 magic words) are consistently repeated in early readers, with the 100 magic words making up one half of all the words used in reading. They will read, write and see these words many times.

All lower level readers have illustrations that provide high support for the text. As the child’s reading fluency increases, the dependency on visual clues decreases. It’s critical to allow our kids to crawl before they walk, and to walk before they run.

Covering up the pictures would be like driving our car blindfolded! Without visual clues and road signs to help us navigate our way around, it would be a difficult task. Pictures provide kids with a roadmap to help them make meaning from the text. And apart from the helpful nature of illustrations, they also provide interest and evoke emotions.

I realise mums and dads are a well-meaning bunch and intend to help and not hinder their child’s reading progress, but the process of learning to read can sometimes seem like a strange and slippery beast. As parents we often wonder if we are doing the “right” thing in all manner of parenting situations and what to do to best help our children learn to read is no exception.

With this in mind, I will sleep a little easier tonight knowing fewer parents are covering up the pictures, but I’ll also be back to give some helpful tips on reading strategies we can all use with our kids.

A wise woman once READ…

Gee, I’m impressed. I know some really clever, passionate mums! Caterina, a dear family member all the way from Winnipeg in Canada has also shared a lovely story about reading with her sons. I hope you find it as touching as I did…

Shortly after my first son was born, a friend gave him the book “Where the Sidewalk Ends”, by Sheldon Silverstein. I read the poems to him whenever we had quiet time. As he grew older I would jump into bed with him at night and let the book open where it might and start reading from there saying that I would only read one poem. Of course, he would not let me stop. I did all the voices, sounds and theatrical pauses that would bring the poems alive.

As he grew older I let him choose a poem, usually by looking at the picture and since he had heard the poems so often, he would say them/ "read them" as I pointed and said the words.

As time passed he took over and he would read to me with all the voices.

When our second son came on the scene, I followed the same procedure but had both in bed this time with the older son now doing the poems with me or alone for his younger brother.

Fast-forward 20 years. When Sheldon Silverstein died a few years ago, in honour of the enjoyment he provided us all, all three of us jumped into bed and again we read the poems we loved the most. In the end, we had finished the whole book — again.

I give this book as a gift to all the new babies that I have the pleasure of knowing.

Enjoy yourself and they will too. Read and they will too — a wonderful philosophy for the leaders/readers of tomorrow.

A wise woman once said…

Maria, a friend of mine and mum to two young kids emailed me recently with an anecdote that her partner, Craig, remembers from his childhood. I thought it was a great reminder of how powerful a mum’s loving words can be.

Craig remembers learning to read. He said his mum read to him a lot and he loved stories. She said to him, “one day you will learn to read the words and can read as many books as you like”. He remembers thinking how great that would be and couldn’t wait to learn how to read.

That’s pretty cool!

Survey results: parents tell us about their son's experience of learning to read

Thanks to all the mums and dads who filled in our survey about their son's experience of learning to read. It was fantastic to receive 49 completed surveys. And boy did our parents have a lot to say about school readers and learning to read in the early years. Thanks so much — your insights are invaluable.

Also, congratulations to Lesley Richards who won the cool pack of books for her son William (personally selected by Oscar due to their coolness!)

The feedback showed that many parents and their sons have found learning to read very challenging and frustrating. However, there were a few families who have had very positive experiences of learning to read in the early years.

So now we will let the numbers, and the parents, speak for themselves…

The numbers

This is what you told us:

1. 42% of boys LOVE books, but only 8% LOVE most school readers.

2. 46% of parents described most school readers as DULL and 25% described them as YAWNINGLY-BORING.

3. 41% of boys OFTEN don’t want to read their school reader for homework.

4. 20% of parents said their son had been turned off reading because he doesn’t like school readers.

5. 39% of parents said their son’s experience of learning to read in the early years was FRUSTRATING and 39% said it was CHALLENGING.

6. 84% of parents said they would like school readers to be DIFFERENT.

The comments

“Readers should be relevant to Australia, with fun and exciting stories, and interesting/engaging topics for boys. They need good pictures and characters but still supportive of a very high quality reading program.”

“Some learners like to read information books. There needs to be more of these so there is choice. Children also do not want to read every night, sometimes they are tired and have done enough work for the day!”

“We have not actually bothered with school readers for the past 1-2 years. He gets his own books from the library and would easily read for 1/2hr or more by himself so we don't listen to him read except for sometimes reading the kids bedtime books.”

“An actual story would be nice.”

“It would be great if schools could purchase updated reading materials every couple of years.”

“Because his reader is on a low level it is difficult to get interesting books that don’t sound baby like.”

“This son was happy with school readers as he liked narratives more than non fiction, but my other son prefers non fiction so he didn’t like the readers.”

“Our challenge is a little more complicated. His reading level is WELL below his age and comprehension level and therefore what he is able to read he finds VERY boring. He has never liked reading through and the school readers did nothing to assist in encouraging him to read. He has always found them boring and I would say irrelevant.”

“My son finds school readers interesting because he has nothing to compare it to. When he brings home a reader with actual information or a funny story line, the difference in his enthusiasm is amazing. This happens rarely. I also noticed there was nothing interesting in the content at all until about Level 8.”

“I had a child who loathed reading very, very tedious Biff and Kipper books which have been torturing English children for centuries. An enlightened teacher changed his books and changed his outlook.”

The final word

Thank you for all the wonderful suggestions about topics and ideas to improve school readers. I’ve always believed that if you don’t like something, do something about it, which is how this idea to make readers appealing to boys came about.

It’s a mission of mine to hook all young boys into reading. I want young boys to LOVE reading as much as they love riding their bike, fishing or kicking a ball. I’m sure if we keep listening to what parents, boys and teachers have to say that we can help our boys on the magical journey of learning to read — and to LOVE it!

Compelling research: Boys, Books, and Blogs

There’s a stack of research to suggest boys fall steadily behind girls in school—just have a dig around the ‘net and you’ll be bombarded (unfortunately) with information to support this finding.

Recently I came across some particularly compelling research* which succinctly sums up where our boys are at with their reading. Here’s part of that research:

According to Smith and Wilhelm (2002), a comparison of boys and girls highlighted several key factors:

- Boys take longer learning to read than girls.
- Boys read less frequently than girls.
- Boys have difficulty comprehending narrative and expository texts.
- Boys place a lower value on reading as an activity.
- When boys do read, their choices are much different than those selected by girls.
- Boys prefer to act out a scene or to make something as a response to their reading rather than talking about it.

Their action-oriented and competitive style of learning often works against boys in traditional classrooms. Teachers expect children to read quietly and librarians often ask patrons to keep noise to a minimum because others are trying to read.

In his book, Guys Write for Guys Read (2005), Jon Scieszka provides a collection of essays and short stories written by male authors especially for males. They include a plethora of “boy” topics, ranging from the joys of public flatulence to eating toenails. Scieszka attempts to explain what it is like to think and act like a male, while giving permission to his audience to explore their own maleness.

Scieszka also has tackled the issue of engaging boy readers by creating a website called Guys Read (www.guysread.com). It is an online literacy program that connects boys with the books they would like to read. The site contains a section titled Guys Read Voters, where visitors can recommend books.

Scieszka’s belief is that, with the appropriate incentive and encouragement, boys will become better readers, which will result in them becoming better students and—ultimately—better guys.

*Herbert, Whittingham, Huffman and Ward (2008) Boys, Books, and Blogs

Five tips to keep young boys interested in reading

As parents we all have varying experiences of how our boys take to the challenge of learning to read. Some boys revel in the challenge, while others show little interest in learning the mechanics of reading—and I’ve had conversations with many mums who say they have a child in both camps.

Whether our boys are reluctant readers or rearing to go (or somewhere in between) we’d all agree that we want to be able to help our kids on their reading journey. Learning to read is such an important milestone in every child’s life and helping that process along is one of the greatest gifts we can give our children (along with our unconditional love!)

So if your young boy is riding the reading roller-coaster here’s my top five tips to keep him on the right track:

1. Let him read anything (well, nearly anything) he is interested in

There’s no rule to say learning to read should only involve books. In fact, the wider the variety of texts boys are exposed to the better. It’s all about keeping their interest from the beginning. So let them read what they are interested in.

Oscar is currently into reading road signs, particularly speed limit signs (which is very helpful for me when he alerts me to the fact that I’m doing 90km in an 80km zone).

Here are some other things your boys might be into reading:
Comics
Cereal boxes
Junk mail (Oscar’s learning a lot about real estate agents in our local area)
Instructions on toys
Shopping lists
Recipes (chocolate cake ones are the best!)
Billboards
Cartoons in the newspaper

Whatever takes his fancy, let him go for it.

2. Read together as much as you can

I hear you cry, “But there’s so much to do in a day!” I agree. There is a lot to pack into a day, but like anything, if you want to become good at something you have to practise it. It’s obvious, but true. It comes down to how much value we place on learning to read. If you think it’s pretty important, then it makes sense to spend adequate time reading with your son to help him become good at it.

Making a regular time each day for reading is helpful. Ours is always at bedtime. It’s quiet and relaxing and you never forget because your kids always go to bed (eventually!) Even 20 minutes each night adds up to ten hours a month—and that’s not including all of the other time your child spends reading at school and incidentally while taking in the written text that surrounds him in his daily environment.

3. Mix it up with some fun on-line learning

Most boys can’t wait to get their hands on a keyboard to explore all the amazing things on the Internet. While they may be mostly interested in adventure games there’s no reason they can’t learn some helpful things along the way.

There must be thousands of reading-related websites and, as you would expect, some are better than others. To find the good ones ask your son’s teacher and other parents what they use.

Here are three of our favourites:

http://www.starfall.com/ is a great reading website starting with basic alphabet sounds through to higher reading levels.
http://www.readingeggs.com/ is an Australian website with progressive interactive reading lessons combined with reading books and activity books.
http://www.matheletics.com.au/ is a well-known website focussing on maths from K-12, but there’s lots of opportunities for reading practise in the maths activities.

4. Make reading light and fun

A few mums have secretly admitted to me that they have lost their patience with their son while reading together. If we were all honest, we’d admit to doing it occasionally too. Why is it that our child can see a word 100 times and still not get it?!

I can’t stress enough—don’t get stressed when reading. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Keep encouraging your son to have a go and keep reminding him (and yourself) that he will be a great reader one day.

A recent example of taking the heat out of a potentially frustrating situation was when Oscar kept getting stuck on the word baby in his school reader. The word was at the end of every sentence in the book and yet, he still had a mental block each time he came to it. When I read the word baby to him I said it in a crying, whiney voice (as a baby might sound) baaaay-beeeee! He cracked up laughing and then read the whole book without getting it wrong once!

5. Show your son how much you value reading and books

We all know the old proverb; Monkey see, monkey do. Our kids are pretty perceptive little creatures and if they see us show a love of reading and an appreciation of books, then they are more likely to follow suit.

Do your kids see you reading regularly (and it really doesn’t matter if it’s the newspaper on the toilet—it’s still reading)? Do you have a good selection of books in your house, not only for your kids but for you as well? Do you frequent bookshops even just to browse? Do you visit your local library with your kids and borrow for the whole family? Do you treat books respectfully and look after them? Do you read a variety of materials such as novels, magazines, newspapers, recipes, letters? Our actions speak volumes to our children.

As I lay with Oscar the other night reading one of Andy Griffiths’s fantastic chapter books Oscar became upset when I bent the front cover back to hold the book in one hand. “Don’t do that, you’ll break the pages,” he said most indignantly. I smiled contentedly thinking what a wonderful display of how much he values his books.


I’d love to hear some of your reading tips too. Please post them here for everyone to see. And keep on reading…!

The parent's dilemma: My boy loves books but doesn't want to read

In late July 2008, Oscar, our six year-old son, decided reading wasn’t for him. I was mortified. He adores books and loves being read to, but when he was given a school reader to start learning to read he tossed it aside saying, “This is boring.” And who was I to argue? I actually agreed with him. It made me yawn too.

I couldn’t believe that school readers looked like they did when I was at school (which was some time around the Stone Age). The carefully structured text describing how mum cleans, cooks, washes and jogs (and I won’t bore you with the other equally exciting chores of the modern-day mum) might be great for teaching reading skills, but where is the excitement? Where is the engrossing storyline? Where are the wonderfully engaging illustrations? Where are the cool characters?

All we get to see are photos of a very tired looking mum wearing ill-fitting tracksuit pants and sporting a bad 80s perm. It’s not the sort of stuff that gets a six year-old boy going — or an equally tired mum who’s trying to excitedly read her son’s monotonous school reader.

“Surely there’s some cool readers for boys learning to read out there,” I lamented to anyone who would listen. So I started searching, and searching, and searching…

After many chats with Oscar’s teachers, numerous trips to our public libraries, more than a few chats with other mums, and a lot of digging around the ‘net, I discovered that if exciting readers for young boys existed, that I couldn’t find them. What a crime to all young boys. And particularly so when you take into account the considerable research showing that boys are more likely than girls to be reluctant readers and that they generally fall behind their female peers in school (and more on that research later).

What I did find was some great stuff for older boys. Paul Jennings’s work is already a favourite in our family and his recently published Rascal series are perfect for boys who are more fluent readers. Andy Griffiths is doing a great job at grossing-out our older boys and the Tashi books are capturing our young boys’ imaginations. But—and here’s the but—my six year-old can’t read any of these books. The text is too complex and aimed at the older, more advanced reader. Our young boys starting out on the reading journey need to experience reading success as well as engaging stories.

So this year, as Oscar settles into grade one, we are working on finding good books for him to get into. School readers are still a daily requirement. Oscar thinks some of them are OK—like the ones that have someone fishing or a go-kart on the front cover. He still thinks many of them are boring. We keep up our enthusiasm, go slowly, and find other ways to keep him interested in books and in learning to read. I’ll let you know what some of those things are in my next post.

Until then, happy reading with your little fellows!