FeedManiac Monday: Cheese Syndicate Winner announced and Books for Boys
August 25, 2009 in Colfer, Eoin, Maniac Mondays, Middle Grade Novel, Paulsen, Gary, St. Cyr, Donna Tags: books for boys, books for girls, Donna St. Cyr, eoin colfer, Gary Paulsen, middle grade books, The Secrets of the Cheese Syndicate
My husband picked a number between one and seventeen, Heidi’s name was written next to number 17, and so, she is the winner of the copy of The Secrets of the Cheese Syndicate by Donna St. Cyr.
Congratulations to Heidi S. I sent you an email, so respond and send me your snail mail address soon! margodll [at] aol [dot] com
Now on to my Maniac Monday topic–Books for Boys. If you look under the comments section of the Friday, August 21st post about The Secrets of the Cheese Syndicate, you will see a long list of recommendations of books for boys to read. This got me thinking. Why must we always discuss this topic of books for boys? Yes, we need to discuss it because there are many mothers and fathers and teachers out there who are complaining that boys aren’t reading or don’t like to read. We also must discuss books for boys and recommend some to each other in spite of the fact there are hundreds of books for boys–new, old, and everything in between. But why is it such a hot topic?
I guess my main point is. . . Why don’t we discuss books for girls as much? Why does it seem like girls will read anything–girl or boy main character, sci-fi or romance? It almost reminds me of babies–it’s okay when the girl baby wants to play with her brother’s firetruck, but people worry or think it’s weird when the boy baby wants to play with his sister’s Barbie dolls. Why is this?
Do we get the same look on our faces when we see a boy reading Junie B. Jones? I’ve seen boys read The Babysitter’s Club or Judy Blume books. Are they weird? Of course, not. But I do think we assume that boys don’t want to read about princesses or girls’ friendships or even an adventure book with a girl main character. Believe me, I am not blaming here–I am pointing the finger back at myself, too. I have a stepson, and I am always looking for “books for boys;” and at the library if there’s a girl on the cover, I don’t pick it up for him. UGH!
Here are a couple of great suggestions from my friends who left comments about books for boys. Boys will love these books.
But girls will love them, too. And that book that you see a girl reading over there might also be enjoyed by a boy. I’m going to start trying to remember that, and I hope you will join me.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Great topic, Margo. I don’t know why the boy book/girl book identification trends exist, but they do – partly I think we nurture them – but partly (to offer my opinion) males and females are wired somewhat differently. That’s not to say there aren’t many men out there who love Jane Austin (and my daughter loves a great shoot-em-up, car-chase-filled movie).
What I’ve observed in my many years as librarian is that certain boys wouldn’t be caught dead with a “girl” book but others are more willing to read outside the “norm” for their group. So, it’s nice to have a list of boy books for those readers who want to read in their comfort zone, but that doesn’t mean we should stop our recommendations there. I always try to recommend things I’ve read that I love (regardless of my idea of possible gender preference) then I resort to using category recommendations when I get those weird looks from my patrons and comments like, “Seriously, Mrs. St. Cyr. Don’t you have ANYTHING else for me?”