We
Are Not Doing Enough for Boys in
Young People’s Publishing
The wondrous Grand Pooh-Ba, author extraordinaire
Jon Scieszka and I met almost fifteen years ago, becoming friends and compatriots-in-arms.
In addition to being writers, we were both experienced classroom teachers. What
initially brought us together was a shared concern that the literacy
opportunities that we had as young people were shrinking in schools and
classrooms across the country—ready access to books, libraries, and information
sources, as well as access to remarkable teachers and librarians who could show
us how to think critically about those sources and guide us to literature and
art that would enhance our own creativity. Sharing our observations, we also
worried that many boys’ literacy and literature needs were not being addressed
educationally. Boys of all socioeconomic groups were falling behind girls in
every literacy skills assessment. Those boys’ literacy concerns inspired Jon to
create the amazing GUYS READ website (www.guysread.com). Those
concerns, and much more, inspired me to create THE NATIONAL CHILDREN’S BOOK AND
LITERACY ALLIANCE (www.thencbla.org), a literacy not-for-profit that educates
about, and advocates for, literacy, literature, libraries, the arts, and
humanities.
Around that time, the then head of the Children’s
Book Council Paula Quint asked me to come to a CBC meeting in New York to
discuss my classroom observations with publishers, as well as to describe the
goals of the NCBLA. I shared that the younger generation was much more visual
oriented than previous pre-screen generations and I encouraged publishers to
once again include illustrations and pictures in middle grade fiction and
nonfiction to encourage those visually oriented kids to read more. I shared my
observations that boys were reading less and less, and that they rarely read
fiction that was not a classroom assignment. I was concerned that there were
not enough books for boys, and girls, interested in sports and real life
adventures. I was met mainly with skepticism. One male editor challenged me,
saying that he read, his friends read, his son and nephews read, and they all
read fiction—I did not know what I was talking about. I had not met this editor
before, but took a guess, asking him if he lived on the upper West Side of NYC.
His answer was, unsurprisingly, yes.
And therein is the problem. Many people who read,
especially people who read literary fiction, hang out with people
professionally and socially who read a lot, reading both fiction and
nonfiction. And quite naturally, our perspective on the world and its
challenges often reflects the bubbles within which we operate; the smaller and
more insular the bubbles, the more limited our experiences and vision. Literary
readers, critics, and publishing communities often live and operate and
socialize with others who share their values and personal reading habits. But
that kind of reading culture barely exists within many larger groups of people
in our nation. One of the major reasons we are losing readers on all levels is
because the literary world of fiction, and sometimes nonfiction, reflects a
very limited world and economic view. We don't need to dumb things down, we
just need to publish stories and information that reflect a broader landscape
of human experience and interests.
For fifteen years as a writer, teacher, and as head
of a national children’s literacy organization, I have been in hundreds of classrooms
in many states teaching creative writing to kids in elementary, middle, and
high schools. At this point, I have seen, read, and critiqued THOUSANDS of
young peoples’ stories and creative writing samples. If you want to know what
kids are reading, and if they are reading at all, look at what and how they
write. Hand me a pile of kids’ writing and I can pick out, within minutes, the
kids who read books on a regular basis—because most people learn how to write
the same way they learn initial language skills as babies, they learn by
“osmosis.” To put it simply, the more you read, the more works of quality that
you read, the better writer you become.
In my experience, on average, in a class of thirty kids
only five kids will be eager readers, with most of those kids being girls.
Why?—first, because we have undergone a radical social change in our
nation. Intellectual male
accomplishments used to be prized as being equal to or beyond athletic
achievements—now we applaud ignorance.
In the 1950’s and 1960’s we honored men who were athletes, but we also
honored men who were scientists, astronauts, engineers, painters, writers of
fiction and nonfiction, statesmen, labor leaders, activists—men who were
educated, men who read and read widely, men who were not hesitant to share that
they read, men who were proud that they had worked hard to gain a substantive
education. Those role models are rare in our current culture. Young men today
desperately need role models who are men of honor, intelligence, and
accomplishment.
In terms of creating lifelong male readers, we need
a far greater variety of books, both fiction and nonfiction, that reflect boys’
interests. In every elementary classroom I visit, the majority social
experience of boys and girls is now some kind of sports activity. One of the
most frequently asked questions from family members and teachers is—tell me,
what is a great sports book for my kid? Outside of the departed Matt
Christopher series of books which are mainly ghost written, as well as books by
Mike Lupica and Tim Green, there are not that many sports books. (Jon’s got the best sports list on his Guys
Read site.)
And where are books like Henry Huggins, The Enormous Egg, Homer Price, Rascal—books that
entertain, books with great storytelling? We need many more male writers, more
voices like Jack Gantos, Jon Scieszka, Christopher Paul Curtis, Walter Dean
Myers. And if there are books like that out there, more teachers and parents
need to know about them. We need to hook boys into reading early with great
books that reflect the wide variety of their life experiences so that they will
become lifelong readers.
I recently attended the Yale University Writers
Conference for the adult publishing industry. In one major way it was very
different from any writing conference I have attended for the young people’s
publishing community. On every level—faculty, guest speakers, attendees—there
were far more men. And there was a far greater variety of life experiences
amongst those attending. Fully a third to half of everyone present at the
conference were talented male writers—straight, gay, old, young, middle aged,
blue collar, white collar, academics, physicians, construction workers,
government employees, lawyers, teachers—and those voices greatly enhanced every
aspect of the conference from the presentations to the workshop critiques. Yet,
one of the big topics of conversations—besides the fact that there are huge
increases in the number of people writing, while at the same time there are
major decreases in the number of people reading (a topic for another time)—was
that the main buyers of all adult books, both fiction and nonfiction, are
women. And the vast majority of people who read adult literary fiction are
women. Women book purchasers also dominate the young people’s book market.
Obviously, there are great young people’s novels out there that interest many
girls and turn them into lifelong readers of fiction. And just as obviously, we need many more
vibrant works of fiction and nonfiction that will turn boys into lifelong
readers and book purchasers.
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| Avery in Charlotte's Webb. Illustration by Garth Williams. |
When I teach kids how to become better writers, I
use examples from young people’s literature to illustrate points I am trying to
communicate about great writing and storytelling. One book I used to use quite
often was Charlotte’s Web, not only
because it is beautifully written, but because it was the only book in America
that most kids would have read by fourth grade—sadly that is no longer the case.
In terms of describing how story is driven by character, I showed the kids
Garth Williams’ telling illustrations of Fern cradling baby Wilbur and also the
picture of her brother Avery holding his pop gun. I then read the first page of
Charlotte’s Web and posed this
question: what would have happened if Avery had been the first one awake the
morning that Wilbur was set to be killed because he was a runt pig?
You can imagine the reaction that question inspires
in a class, and the ensuing discussion.
But now I wonder in our uber politically correct young people’s literature
world if that pop gun illustration of Avery—a character our parents would have
described as being “all boy”—would be allowed in a new children’s book? I hope that it would because I have met
thousands of boys like Avery who need to see more boys like themselves depicted
in stories of fact and fiction. We need more books that reflect a wide variety
of boys’ life experiences as well as a wider variety of girls’ life
experiences, too.
Now, what can we do about it?
Mary Brigid Barrett
President and Executive Director
The National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance
