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The Prince of Fenway Park
Boys and Literacy Boys are falling behind. For the last 30 years, boys have been scoring worse than girls on the U.S. Department of Education reading test -- in every age group, every year. The key to getting boys to read and improve their fluency is to hook them. Give them books they WANT to read. In the section TIPS TO BOOST READING, my very first suggestion is: Let kids read what they want -- even if it's comic books at first -- to get them hooked. Nobel Peace Prize winner, South Africa's Bishop Desmond Tutu: "... one of the things I am very grateful to [my father] for is that, contrary to conventional educational principles, he allowed me to read comics. I think that is how I developed my love for English and for reading." Because girls read more than boys do, they also buy more books than boys do. Because they buy more books, more books are chosen for publication with girls in mind. This, of course, is a downward spiral. More books that appeal to girls, fewer that appeal to boys. Boys pick up book after book, not finding as many stories told with them in mind. Now, to be fair, girls, in general, are more willing to read books with a leading male protagonist than boys are willing to read about a leading female protagonist. But this, too, is likely our fault, as a culture that so often sends the message that not only are girl things unmanly, but, worse, that reading itself is unmanly. If one generation of men stop reading in childhood, then they aren't modeling reading as adult men for their kids. Another one of my tips to boost reading is, "Model reading. If kids see you doing it, they're more likely to." One of the things that was at the forefront of my mind while writing THE PRINCE OF FENWAY PARK was the idea that I was writing a book that both sons and their fathers could read together. This is how a bridge can be built not only between a boy and the world of books, but also between father and son. |
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