BOYS: THE READING CRISIS – Are Girls Gaining a Life-Long Advantage?
August 13th, 2010 
Carol 
Did you know boys and girls don’t read equally? That it can be so difficult to get boys to read that some have called it a crisis? I sure didn’t. To be fair, it’s not that I’m totally clueless, just mostly clueless. After all, I tore through books like a swarm of locusts as a boy, and my son is an avid reader as well. So even when I left biotechnology to write a series of science fiction thrillers for kids, I never imagined there might be a huge reading gap between boys and girls.
Even when educators and reviewers began proclaiming that my books were great for boys, I had no idea. Had I realized at this point that I had inadvertently accomplished something important: that books, especially series, that appeal to this demographic fill a critical need, I would have happily embraced this label. But instead I chafed against it. After all, I had received very positive feedback on the books from girls also (and even adults). So why did some reviewers focus so intently on the boys, to the exclusion of all others? Only gradually did I realize that they understood the books’ broad appeal—they just didn’t care. Boys were the nut they wanted to crack. After some key conversations with educators the truth finally invaded my impressively thick skull. Now, I not only understood their viewpoint, I agreed with it entirely, and decided to make up for my previous cluelessness by becoming as much of an expert as I could on the subject.
So what have I learned? On March 17th, ABC News summed it up nicely: “Girls are reading better than boys, and [this] is giving girls a life-long advantage.” They cited research showing that boys are significantly behind girls across all school ages on standardized reading tests—in all fifty states! According to the U.S. Department of Education, boys tend to read a full grade-and-a-half lower than girls.
And America is not alone. In 2001, the Department of Education conducted a massive study on 4th grade reading in 45 countries, including the U.S., and the results were breathtaking: girls outscored boys in reading literacy in all 45 countries! So was ABC right? Is this gap leading to a life-long advantage for girls? Maybe so. One need only look at U.S. colleges, which are now dominated by women (57% to 43%) to see one effect of this disparity.
So why are boys lagging behind? First, boys are almost twice as likely as girls to have a reading disability like dyslexia. Also, brain architecture differs between the sexes. Girls tend to be more verbally oriented and boys more visually. And while it has long been accepted that girls mature faster physically, MRI brain scan data show that the language centers of girls’ brains develop faster as well. Others cite the fact that boys tend to be more physically restless than girls. Or that society sends boys signals that sports and other activities are more masculine than quiet reading. Finally, we live in a world filled with video games and Facebook and endless other distractions, which studies have shown further exacerbate the problem.
But this isn’t to say our educational system can’t do better. According to Michael Sullivan in School Library Journal, “Boys also don’t read books because we urge them to read the wrong ones. But it’s not guys’ tastes that are at fault. When boys read [because of differences in their brain wiring] they need an extra jolt of sound, color, motion, or some physical stimulation to get their brains up to speed. How do educators respond to the books that boys crave? For the most part, we dismiss them. We insist that all children read books that foster internal reflection, that emphasize the emotional rather than the physical. We define ‘good’ books as those that conform to the way girls think.”
There may never be perfect solution to this problem, but experts advise encouraging boys to read, reading aloud to them often when they are young, and putting books in their hands that can hook them from beginning to end, even if the books aren’t in the classic mold of literature long pursued in schools.
So while it’s embarrassing (and hard to imagine) that I totally missed this pervasive issue for so long, even while I was writing for kids, I’m trying to make up for it. And now, while I still love hearing that girls and adults like my work, nothing in the world makes me happier, or prouder, than when a reviewer writes that my books have great appeal to boys.
Douglas E. Richards is the author of ‘The Prometheus Project” series: fast-paced science fiction thrillers that have been called, “Perfect for middle grades,” by Teaching Pre K-8 magazine and listed as “recommended literature” by the California Department of Education. He has also written extensively for ‘National Geographic KIDS” magazine, and has contributed articles to the BBC, EarthSky, and many others (including a piece entitled, “Bringing the ‘wow’ factor of science fiction into the classroom,” for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation). To learn more about Douglas and his work, please visit www.douglaserichards.com , or friend him on his new Douglas E. Richards Author and Fan Facebook pages.
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