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".....the books and the reading event (whether at school, or reading with mum and dad) offer opportunities to discover, experiment, explore, learn new things, make them laugh, consider the curious or unusual, help them to play, see how things work, share trivia tricks and facts with other boys, explore the unknown, and generally do interesting things."
For many boys (like girls) the narrative form is the best way into literacy, but some boys are reluctant to read narratives. Our aim as parents or teachers is to develop boys who can read every imaginable genre when it is appropriate to their needs. We want them to read in a sustained way written text presented in traditional print forms (e.g. books, magazines, letters), electronic forms, or in fact text found anywhere within the child's world. So we should seek to explore any textual form available to introduce them to reading and then gently push them to explore other forms of reading, as well as to read in more sustained ways and for all imaginable purposes. I've tried below to offer a range of ideas for boys aged from beginning readers to young teenager. All are meant to offer an alternative pathway for pushing forward reluctant readers. They are roughly in order of increasing difficulty and age appropriateness, but some examples are relevant across all ages.
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Explore websites together - from about 3 years most boys will love to explore computers with you. Choose some simple websites (I list a few on the sidebar of this blog site), National Geographic Kids is worth a look. The Australian Museum has a great site called 'Wild Kids' where lots of facts and pictures can be found about animals - great fun to explore (and it's reading!). Show them how you open the site. Then explore the pages of the site pointing to and reading words. Don't make this a reading lesson, the text is peripheral to the exploration, images etc. But you are 'warming them up' to print. There are some greats sites to explore on sharks, reptiles etc.
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A sub-category of this approach is the use of 'key fact' books. Many boys will love books that offer a mix of drawings and pictures with facts about things that fascinate them. Some of these books use extended text but others use short 'sharp' statement with good accompanying graphics or images. Popular topic areas with boys include:
- Egyptology
- Jet planes
- Weather
- Animals of all kinds
- History
- Sport
- Science
- Engineering
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1001 Unbelievable Facts, by Helen Otway (there is a whole series of '1001 Fact..' books, 'Backpack Books' published by DK)
100 Things You Should Know About Ancient Rome, by Fiona Mcdonald
Dinosaurs (Pocket Series), produced as part of a series of non-fiction books by DK Publishing
My Panda Book, by Stuart P. Levine. This is one of a series of books published in partnership with the Smithsonian.
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Knock Knock Who's There: My First Knock Knock Book by Tad Hills is a great introduction to humour in books with answers under flaps.
The Everything Kids' Joke Book, by Michael Dahl offers Jokes for upper Primary children (aged 7-12 years) plus a second section on how to write jokes.
The Family Joke Book, by Brad Taylor
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It is not a new form, for example, well-known children's author Raymond Briggs has used the format to powerful effect with works like 'When the Wind Blows' (1986) that tells of the impact of an atomic blast on an elderly British couple who approach the impending disaster as if they were simply trying to survive the Blitz of WWII. He was also responsible for the very confronting picture book The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman which is a political satire about the Falklands war (this is at best a young adult book).
A final comment on literature
As I've stressed above, while it isn't essential for children to begin reading via books or fiction, there is a critical place for traditional forms like children's literature because of the importance of narrative to people. What I'm saying is that while boys might start reading in many different ways, they shouldn't be allowed to avoid the narrative form. As I commented in the third part of a series of posts on the 'Power of Literature' (here) I believe that while it is possible to learn to read without a rich tradition of books and literature, I would argue that it isn’t possible without a foundation of narrative and story. Why? Expert in narrative Harold Rosen offers the perfect answer to my question:
Narratives in all their diversity and multiplicity make up the fabric of our lives; they are constitutive moments in the formation of our identities and our sense of community affiliation.We spend most of our lives telling each other stories. Yes, I know that there are countless language genres with their own structure, purpose, modalities and so on, but we build our relationships with one another, we share our humanity through the stories we tell about our own lives and those that we have heard from others. So our aim in using factual forms of reading isn't meant to be an alternative to reading literature. Eventually, we should aim to have our boys loving literature too.
Related posts
Key themes in children's books: Humour (here)
All my posts on boys and education (here)
9 comments:
My son (who is 3 y.o.) is really into non-fiction books. He likes to read stories too, but he is a lot more interactive (asking questions and pointing things out) when we read non-fiction. And when we go to the library, he spends much longer choosing non-fiction than stories.
Fantastic list Trevor. I have been searching for some non fiction for my eldest son. I would be interested in your opinion of the Horrible Histories series of books?
I gotta say, I love The Dangerous Book for Boys! :-) Also, on a slightly different note, it sorta reminds me of this article from Roger Ebert.
And I'm a big fan of comics and graphic novels as well. I grew up reading and loving Calvin and Hobbes. And graphic novels like Watchmen and Maus about the Holocaust were quite thought-provoking as well. Although I wouldn't recommend these for younger readers at all, or without a considerable amount of discretion.
Thanks again, Trevor. :-)
Thanks for your comments everyone. Nice to hear that your 3 year old loves non-fiction Catherine. 'Horrible Histories' are books that many boys will love Planning Queen. Not necessarily accurate in terms of history, but a fun way in for some boys. Nice to hear that you loved the 'Dangerous Book for Boys' Patrick. And nice to hear from you again Max. Great to hear your perspectives on the topic. Trevor
As a brand new father of a baby boy, I found this post really interesting. Although not applicable yet particularly the joke books and magazines it is something that will stick in my mind for when the time comes. Thanks for posting on these topics.
Thanks Andrew. I look forward to hearing how your son gets on as he grows and becomes a reader. Regards, Trevor
This is a great resource. We have linked to it here in California for our friends who are always looking for great books for boys.
Thank you so much. I have been tearing my hair out trying to get my son interested in something other than reading The Wimpy Kid series for the 7th time. I had forgotten how much he liked the kids' almanacs I checked out for him from the library a few months ago. Will revisit those.
Glad it was of help Alladither, would love to hear from you if you have some success.
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