Recommends for Reluctant 13 y.o. Boys

For Aimee……Reading for a Thirteen Year Old Boy Who Isn’t a Book Lover

I admit….I became a school librarian out of my love of literature. If I could fill a library with historical fiction and poetry I would. The thing is most of the students I work with are not interested in either. Furthermore, they are often admitted “nonreaders”. I find myself looking for ways to get kids reading anything…..especially reluctant boy readers.

Below is an “off the top of my head” list of reading recommends from my super short time as a middle school librarian. However, I’m just getting started in this line of work. There are lots more great reads that moms, friends and other librarians can recommend. I hope they do! Please do.

Reluctant readers can be put off by text heavy pages. There’s tons of great reading material that isn’t word-dense that boys will read. Try the “cereal box” reading philosophy. If something interesting and short is out next to where they are eating, they probably will (don’t tell them that a librarian said it was ok to read and eat at the same place!)

·         Picture books – are often of a much higher reading level than what you might think. Great picture books for boys are by authors such as Chris Van Allsburg, Jon Scieszka, and Patricia Polocco.

·         Almanacs—especially illustrated almanacs such as Time Almanac for Kids

·         Photography Books

·         Record Books such as Ripley’s Believe It or Not! and others

·         Chicken Soup for the Soul books have lots of short and great inspirational stories

·         Short Stories – so many short story books are of those scary tales!

·         Cook Books –growing boys are more interested in food and maybe they will cook for/with you!

·         Audio books in the form of playaways, CDs or interactive e-books are a great way to take in a story.

Old Fashioned Chapter Books

·         Anything by Gordon Korman – a great new book and football story is Pop! Mr. Korman’s website is out of this world great for middle level readers. Go there!
http://gordonkorman.com/

·         Anything by Rick Riordan – The Percy Jackson series is just one

·         Hank Zipzer Series – funny books by Henry “the Fonz” Winkler about a kid with learning challenges

·         Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata

·         Love that Dog! By Sharon Creech is a great book in verse

·         Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James Swanson is a non-fiction capturing the minds of boys everywhere!

·         Holes by Louis Sacher…even better than the movie…but watch the movie after reading!

·         Home of the Brave is a great book about a Somali “lost boy” who is new to the US

·         Breathe by Cliff McNish is a great old fashioned ghost story

And finally, the hard truth is that kids will read more if they see us reading too. We parents and adults have to be seen enjoying reading for them to catch the spirit too. Assign yourself some good middle level reading (trust me, so much of it is as good or better as stuff for adults) and allow them to “steal” a chapter or “read ahead”. Sometimes, that friendly competition can get something started.

A funny pairing of boy-ish books

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales and Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Almost True Stories of Growing up Scieszka

By Jon Scieszka

During sixth grade volunteer reading time, one class in particular responded great to slightly "weird" humor. I discovered this when presenting the two books titled above simultaneously. I have to admit, the humor tickled the funny bone of boys quicker than it did the girls…..but it worked for both. I especially appreciated the teacher's positive response to the humor I was reading because sometimes Jon Scieszka's writings are a tiny bit irreverent if not slightly naughty—so sixth grade!

The Stinky Cheese Man has been around for a long time (published 1992) and is a favorite of many older kids that grew up with sweet fairy tales such as The Little Red Hen, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, The Princess and the Pea and The Little Gingerbread Boy. Sceiszka gathered all of these tales, fractured and reassembled them into a jumbled up compilation that makes kids who don't necessarily enjoy reading push on to the end. As with all great picture books, the illustrations of Lane Smith further "tell" the story so that the book is best if the reader searches out the illustrations too. The book is a Caldecott honor book.

Knuckleheads, published in 2008, is a fantastic autobiography of the author's life growing up with five brothers. Scieszka explains that he's been asked so many times about where his stories come from that he thought an explanation in the form of his autobiography would be a good start. Each chapter is super short and either funny or touching in a very boy kind of way. Yes, there is bit of potty humor and story about throwing up but, the book makes the reader laugh through universal experiences of boyhood from any generation. Knuckleheads is, in my opinion, a fantastic way of introducing the genre of autobiography to younger readers. My boys ages 6 and 7 read and giggled through several of the chapters that I read aloud to them. The black and white photographs show the author and family members from an earlier time giving the book a definite "old timey" (in terms of today's kids) feel. For sixth graders, I read a few pages of Stinky Cheese Man and then a chapter of Knuckleheads….asking students if they "got" how Scieska's childhood experiences shaped his humor as a writer. At first, students showed me faces with the "huh?!" expression and then little by little were giggling with me toward the end of our reading session. We all had fun.

Scieszka is an outstanding children's author and was named the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature by the US Library of Congress in 2008. His mission to engage young people, especially reluctant readers and boys, in reading is obvious. Another one of his works that I intend to check out soon is his edited compilation of essays: Guys Write for Guys Read (Viking 2005). Many wonderful details can be learned about Scieszka can be learned at his child friendly website Jon Scieszka Worldwide: That's What It's All About: http://www.jsworldwide.com/yeah_he_wrote_em.html

Scieszka, J. (2008). Knuckleheads: Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories of Growing Up Scieszka. New York: Viking.

Scieszka, J. (1992). The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. New York: Viking Juvenile.

GON by Masashi Tanaka, great series for reluctant and ambitious readers

Ah, summer when the reading is easy. My family enjoys a series of books titled: Gon by Masashi Tanaka that is worth sharing. These books are super for reluctant readers and new readers because they are wordless books. However, even my super reader becomes completely absorbed in the Gon stories and enjoys retelling them in detail.

Gon is a dinosaur, a feisty dinosaur, which escaped extinction and now roams the world saving small and defenseless animals from bigger and meaner creatures. Despite some suspenseful violence, many, many scenes are comical and I often hear my kids laughing out loud as they read.

I've wondered as I see how much my children love these books of pen and ink art, are they reading? And, I've come to the conclusion that they are. Gon is divided up into episodes that are read from the back of the book toward the front as many graphic novels and manga books are designed. In order to understand the story of each episode and how each episode of the book is part of the larger story, readers must understand who the characters are, what the action is and where the scene is taking place. The title page for each episode includes sometimes one or two words or a couple of paragraphs. This is great for kids that don't enjoy reading….because by the time they get to these few words they are hooked enough by the story to read to the end. I also love how the ending to each Gon novel is "to be continued…" so that the reader is already looking forward to the next book in the series.

Gon is published by CMX publishers, a trademark of DC Comics. CMX kindly includes a "Know What's Inside" label inside the back (in this case front) cover of the Gon books for adults so that they can decided if the reading material is appropriate for their reader. Gon is rated T for "teen" as opposed to "E" for everyone, T+ "Teen Plus" for ages 16 and older or "M" for mature. Since I am very new to the world of graphic novels and manga, I appreciate this label description. The "T" for the books my children, who are not yet teens, covers the violent nature of some drawings. None of the drawings that I've read are more suspenseful or violent than the Spiderman, Hulk, Star Wars or other action/adventure comics we've checked out of the Juvenile section of our local library. Gon is shelved in the Juvenile comic book (Dewey numbers 741) section of our library alongside our favorite Marvel and DC comics for kids.

Gon books are fun….definitely different than what I grew up with but appealing to today's kids.