A Quick Note About Boy Readers

I know I have mentioned the difference between how boys and girls may read, but I had another discussion with a friend and fellow mom at baseball last night, and I thought it would be good to touch on it again.

She has a girl and a boy, and says that the boy is by far much harder to get to sit down and read. He's young, first grade, so this is a crucial time in his maturation as an independent reader.

I told her that from my experience, boys at this age need to read material that is funny, applies to their lives, or is just plain silly and fun. They may actually be reading things that are too easy at times for them, but that is ok.

For boys, they need to learn to fall in love with books. They need to figure out that reading is fun, and that there are great things in picking up the pages. If they don't get that, reading will always be a task they do for someone else.

I recommended Mo Willems of course, but also some of the "comic" and graphic books too. They seem to motivate my kids, and the kids I read with at school.

Listen: Yesterday I read with 8 boys of all ages, and they were rolling in laughter...and they asked when I was coming back and whether I would "bring more of these books." I did not read to them...they read to me...and they worked, hard...but they were motivated by the humor (and some gross out stuff - boys will be boys!)

So let them read it...as they discover reading is fun, they will begin to crave longer, deeper quality -- TRUST ME.