Yeah, I've long suspected that to some extent the "boys don't read" observation is self-fulfilling. If a publisher comes to this conclusion, are they more likely to publish fiction for females to survive and profit?
But when speculating about the effects of boys not reading books it is wrong to ignore other media. The article says boys have trouble understanding narratives and and don't appreciate fiction, but then says boys play videos, video games, and watch TV, narrative forms all. In these discussions literacy and literary are too often equated.
Ironically, most of the names contributing to this list are male, and we're mostly about reading fiction after all, though I suspect that the appellation "boy" may need preceding by the word "old" (and certainly that preceded by the word "good") to be applicable here.
Best,
Kerry
----- Original Message -----
From: David Rachels
To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 1:45 PM
Subject: RARA-AVIS: Boys & Reading
For those interested, this is a brief, useful overview of recent
research regarding teenage boys and reading:
http://www.teacherlibrarian.com/tlmag/v_30/v_30_3_feature.html
David
On Jul 27, 2009, at 1:24 PM, sandra seamans wrote:
> If you take a cruise around the web, that's where you'll find all
> those young men reading. They're hanging out at places like A
> Twist of Noir, ThugLit, Flash Fiction Offensive, Beat to a Pulp,
> just to name a few, and reading print magazines like Out of the
> Gutter. And that's only the mystery readers, the sci-fi field has
> even younger readers. So they're out there reading zines and
> buying books by the folks they're following on the web. I'm always
> amazed when I drop by their blogs and find out how young some of
> them are.
>
> Sandra
>
> --- On Mon, 7/27/09, Patrick King <abrasax93@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> That's rather a drastic conclusion! Maybe the boys aren't all DARs
> and they just can't get their work published. We're all aware its
> hard to get fiction published these days.
>
> Maybe they're reading 'hardboiled' and 'noir' fiction so, unlike
> vampire and zombie fiction, the mass media doesn't notice. There
> are a lot of possibilities of what happens to people who get into
> the habit of reading early, rather than they stop reading.
> Certainly that poll hasn't been taken.
>
> Patrick King
>
> **********************************
> Unfortunately, the boys tend to stop.
>
> David
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
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