Even Hockey Players Read: Boys and Reading by David Booth, David W. Booth

From the Publisher

This comprehensive overview of the challenging issues around boys and reading includes strategies and practical solutions for helping struggling readers.

The role of gender in reading success is a complex one. This book faces the issues head-on, uncovering many of the assumptions and stereotypes parents and educators have about boys and how they handle the world of print text. Included are the voices of boys and men interviewed by the author, who reveal their literacy challenges, struggles, tastes and values. These "real" voices provide valuable insights into how we can support boys in their journey towards becoming successful readers and writers.

Even Hockey Players Read explores the powerful potential of literacy in a boy's life:

• What factors in the home and in the classroom influence the literacy lives of boys?
• Why do so many boys select different reading materials than girls?
• Why do girls score higher than boys do on tests of reading achievement?
• Why do so many males consider themselves non-readers?
• Are society's expectations for boys' and girls' literacy lives different?
• Do we minimize the literacy needs of girls if we focus on the difficulties with boys?

Drawing upon his background as a parent and a literacy educator, the author suggests a wealth of strategies and techniques for promoting an alternative culture of literacy in school and home settings, where what children choose to read is valued alongside what children need to read. Even Hockey Players Read advocates changing the classroom environment so that

• Boys who can't read are helped;
• Boys who don't read becomemotivated;
• Boys who do read find enrichment.

This highly readable book demonstrates the powerful potential of literacy in the lives of boys. It is essential reading for teachers who want to guide boys to a love of reading that will help them in their school life and beyond.

VOYA

Education professor Booth draws on his professional and personal backgrounds as teacher and parent to present the ways in which boys are frustrated or facilitated in being and becoming readers. He reiterates themes familiar from Stephen Krashen's Power of Reading (Libraries Unlimited, 1993/VOYA, Graphically Speaking, October 1993), Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook (Dutton, 1985/VOYA, Graphically Speaking, October 1993), and two recent books on boys and reading, Readin' Don't Fix No Chevys (Heinemann, 2002/VOYA August 2002) and To Be a Boy, To Be a Reader (International Reading Association, 2002/VOYA August 2002). These books consider the need for adult reader role models, choice in reading material, the concept of reading as something only girls do, and the fallacies of defining reading only as the ability to read and appreciate narrative fiction. Booth also covers ways to improve direct instruction, reading proficiency and comprehension, and using poetry, writing, and drama to strengthen boys' reading competencies and assess them accurately. Also included are a list of interview questions to use with boys to determine reading activities and attitudes, a list of recommended books for boys, and a list of professional reading on the topic. The book's style is engaging, and it is comprehensive in coverage and passionate on the topic, primarily because of Booth's involvement with his son's development as a reader. The many quotes from his son, student teachers, writers, and researchers presented as sidebars, plus the photos of boys, enrich the primary text. Some quotes and citations are omitted from the professional bibliography, which is a minor although annoying editing glitch. Overall,this inspiring and provocative book by an ultimate reflective educator covers a topic directly related to the work of young adult librarians. Index. Illus. Biblio. Further Reading. 2002, Stenhouse, 135p, Chelton

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Table of Contents