Deep Thoughts... Books For Boys

In my teaching experience with students aged 9-15 there seems to be a good representation of books geared to both genders. But, if you scan through the teen section at your local bookstore (Chapter/Indigo where I live), you'll notice there is a lack of books directed towards teenage boys. The predominant genre is paranormal romance geared towards teenage girls. One only has to see the craze of Twilight everything to notice the popularity of this genre and of course dozens of other series have popped up related to vampires, werewolves, faeries, ghosts, witches, etc...

To prove my point, I looked up bestselling teen books at a variety of popular bookseller sites and discovered that over 75% of the bestselling books are geared towards teenage girls: Amazon: Top 100 Teen Bestsellers, Chapters/Indigo: Top 50 Teen Bestsellers, Borders: Teens Home Page and Barnes & Noble: Teens Home Page

Good news for boys! I stumbled across a website, Guys Lit Wire that is dedicated to bringing books that appeal to teenage boys to light.

This is a site dedicated to books for boys (Grade 3 to 6). Here is a resource list (from 2006) compiled by the University of Northern British Columbia.

Here's another list compiled by the Barrie (in Ontario) public library.

← Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
~ a great example of a good book geared towards boys


Another trend is that most stories have caucasian heroines/main characters. Where I teach there is a high East Indian and Asian population. Where are the role models for these demographics that are written in English? How are these girls and boys supposed to identify with characters they can relate to if they are all "white" people? I find a lot of the teens at the school I teach at are reading the Manga graphic novels. Is that the solution? Not sure.

Reading & Writing Log

Read This Week:
Books: Wicked Lovely (review coming soon)
Blogs: A Year of Reading, Best Book I Have Not Read, Book Chick City, Hula Seventy, Wonderings and Wanderings, Bloody Bookaholic, Guys Lit Wire,

Wrote This Week:
Two blogs for this site and four for my other blog.

I have some ideas from some of the blog posts I read today (I got the inspiration from this post. Hint... it's about lists). I'm thinking I need to include more of my photos (taking some new ones would help) in my blogs for writing inspiration.

 

On a side note, I've noticed that a few book review sites like this one and this one compare the US and UK book covers a fair bit. Does it really make a difference whether you read the book or not based on the cover? I guess maybe it has a better chance of getting you to pick up the book if there is a good cover, but for the most part it's the plot that gets me.

Currently Reading... Wicked Lovely Series

Well as I mentioned in my last post, I've been trying to juggle a whole lotta books all at once. That wasn't quite working for me, so I've decided to pick just one, "Wicked Lovely" by Melissa Marr. Update: I just picked up the second book Ink Exchange.

This is a Young Adult, Paranormal Romance that is all about mortal and faerie interaction. These are no Disney Fairies though, they are more complex and some of them are more inclined to malevolence than good.

As a wee lass, I was a pixie while in Brownies. I'm guessing that's when my interest was piqued and I've dabbled in reading about them ever since. I can't say that I am overly involved in reading about them, but every now and again it captures my fancy. Like when we were in Amsterdam and I came across this shop...

Over the past few weeks, I have picked up a few books with faeries as the main plot feature ~ Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter, Wings, Tithe and The Mortal Instruments series. I also went looking for books about faeries while I was in Wales in Jan 2007. I was surprised that I didn't find much, but one of Carl's relatives gave me a book on Gnomes (I'll find a link soon) that is pretty fascinating.

Here is a little more info from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy

On My List... Way too many books!!!

I've always been the type of reader that can have at least 2 or 3 books on the go at once, but I think it's gotten a bit out of control - I've lost count of how many books I am reading. Maybe it's because I am not really invested in any one book I am reading or maybe because I am trying too hard to catch up on too many books.

Since I started really getting back into reading books in earnest over last few months (thanks to a great book I read last summer "The Book Whisperer" by Donalyn Miller), I find my bookshelves are a bit overrun both physically and virtually. I am trying to build a repertoire/collection of young readers and teen fiction as part of my "be in touch with what my students are or might be interested in reading".

I really want to start getting into actually reviewing books and doing more writing, but that means I have to actually finish a book or two! Maybe this is just my procrastinating nature rearing it's ugly head once again.

You can take a look at my virtual shelves here:

http://www.shelfari.com/mscarrsbookshelf
http://www.goodreads.com/mscarr
http://www.librarything.com/home/MarilynCarr

What do you do to keep focused and actually finish books instead of having a bunch on the go?

Professional Reading ~ Content Area Writing

I have been reading a book called Content Area Writing: Every Teacher's Guide by Harvey Daniels, Steven Zemelman and Nancy Steineke for my professional reading group. There is also a companion book about Content Area Reading (which I will most likely get). The reason I chose this book was because I wanted to get more ideas of how to encourage my students to write more.

The authors point out a truth we all know as teachers (and thought as students)... most students HATE writing! What if as Daniels, Zemelman and Steinke suggest, students don't actually hate writing, they just "hate the kind of writing we make them do" (pg 3)? WHAT!! Why would they hate the writing we ask them to do when it's what we have so carefully planned, thought out, deliberated over and if you admit it - what we had to do as a student? Maybe it's because it's not how they think, relate or act in their non-academic lives.

The approach that these authors take (as experts in their field and with collaborative efforts with other teachers) is that you need to meet students where they are at and find ways to get at their thinking in ALL subject matters. We need to find ways to make writing a part of the learning process not just the drudgery of copying notes off the board or overhead (I'll never understand how this is useful - it sure never helped in my student career), or answering comprehension questions for a novel study, history or science textbook or completeing the obligatory dreaded research paper/essay. Some of these types of writing are necessary, but it's how and why you/they do it that's important.

Here's a little bit about the guts of the book...

It's separated into two different types of writing:

1. Writing to Learn ~ This is just as it sounds. It's the process of brainstorming ideas, jotting down notes to remember something, reflecting on what you've read or heard without the pressure of having your writing analyzed or red penned to death. This type of writing is not to be marked (unless you want to make it part of the participation mark). It's students discovering and sharing what they know with themselves, their fellow students and teachers.

2. Public Writing ~ This is the more formal aspect of writing that many of us are used to. The difference with this book is that it examines the process and looks at how we can support students during that process. I am still reading this book and haven't read this part yet, so I'll add more once I've read more.

In the meantime...

What it comes down to is that writing is an essential part of our lives and we can either make a rewarding or painful experience in our classrooms or at home with your kids.

Deep Thoughts ~ Can reading save your life?

I'm not sure if reading saved my life as a child or just made it more bearable. I had a rather difficult childhood and it's tempting to just remember the challenges, but I also have to be thankful for the blessings I received - one of which was a family that loved to read. I'm pretty sure every member of my family as dysfunctional as it was loved to read.

I have so many great memories of great books I read as a child. How many people can relate to having their little night light or flashlight under the covers with their ears listening for footsteps so they could quickly turn out the light before they were caught reading? I'm sure many parents/teachers would love to "catch" their kids/students reading now!

My early successes in school were related to reading and writing. I was in the top reader group in grade 1. I had one of my stories read out to the class in grade 4 (one of my best elementary school memories for sure). I loved loved loved it when my teachers read aloud to us - especially Mrs. English in grade 4 - she was awesome at it. I had three years of correspondence at home (grade 5 to 7) and truly reading made it tolerable. Even later in life when I went back to school for six years to get my teaching degree - I was anxious to read for fun at the end of every semester.

Now I am two years into teaching. Although I don't have a full-time teaching job, I have relished the time I have to read for both professional and pleasure purposes. I see at the myriad of schools that I have been to from kindergarten to grade 12 that overall there is a sad lack of passion or even remote interest in reading. It breaks my heart when I think of what a lifeline reading has been for me. Every now and then I go into a school that sparks a little hope that maybe the art and fun of reading hasn't yet died out for kids today. My hope is to keeping fanning those tiny embers and maybe, just maybe I can help fan the flames into a lovely warm fire that spreads.

My question to you is... How has reading saved or made a big impact on your life? Do tell...