| Young Adult Literature and Multimedia—Resources |
Boys, Internet and Reading
Dinah Haakenson
Abstract
In this paper I examine the pop culture of the Internet and apply it to the reading habits of teen boys. The young adults of today are use the Internet regularly, whether it¹s emailing, playing games, or surfing, yet it seems that this is a little-used source for connecting boys with reading material. There are both web sites and reviews on the Internet that might help a teen boy get connected with the novel he can¹t put down, that just might hook him on reading. Most boys, however, are not even aware that these sites exist.
"A lot of boys aren't too crazy about reading" (Scieszka, About guys, para 1). After reading and reporting on an article about teen chick lit, I thought it would be interesting to see what literature that would be comparable was available to guys. I didn't care if it was magazines, web sites, fiction or nonfiction. I wanted to know what defined a "guy's read." I polled the high school boys who walked into my library to get a basic start, asking them what they liked to read and what they spent time reading. I thought in this world of tech-savvy teenagers, the overwhelming answer would be the "net." "More than any previous generation, today's young people are plugged in‹all the time with a world of communication and information at their fingertips" (Irvine, 2004). It was interesting to note the responses. Quite a few times it was "I don't read anything unless I have to." This would, of course, mean something forced on them by their teachers. When asked how they chose their reading material, their answer was almost always by subject matter or genre. For example, when asked about which magazines they read, most boys would respond sports or outdoor or urban magazines such as Vibe or The Source with hip hop being the subject. When asked how they found their reading material, the boys¹ responses included watching what others picked up/read, listening to someone talk about a topic or something read, or searching by subject: war, science fiction, survival, action/adventure. What surprised me was that even though boys spend a significant amount of time on the Internet, none of the boys mentioned it. In a table cited in Young adult literature and multimedia by Harlan, Loertscher & McElmeel, it was noted that 84% of teens surf the Web for fun (34). I also asked these male teens if they were familiar with the book reviews on the Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble.com websites, or if they had ever visited web sites like teensread.com or guysread.com. They had no idea what I was talking about. One of the students who is also in my book club said he had visited James Paterson¹s site on his new Maximum Ride series, because he was hooked on the series and wanted to know more.
Why is it that these teen males will spend so much time surfing the net, yet not take a few minutes to search for something good to read? There are sites out there to help them, whether it be an author's own discussion forum such as James Paterson's or a site like Jon Scieszka¹s guysread.com, which states "Our mission is to motivate boys to read by connecting them with materials they will want to read, in ways they like to read" (Scieszka, Our mission, para 1). These teens who are so tech-savvy have not found these sites, nor do they seek them out. How can technology be used to connect guys to good reads? Elizabeth Segel said in her article "Choices ŒFor girls for boys': Keeping options open," "large numbers of males in our culture have always viewed reading itself, and certainly literature, as effeminate" (1982, p.107). Is this fact still true today? I certainly hope not. On the home page for guysread.com, Jon Scieszka gives these answers to the question as to why boys might not like reading: "Boys often have to read books they don't really like. They don¹t get to choose what they want to read. And what they do like to read, people sometimes tell them is not really reading" (Scieszka, About guys, para 3). So how do librarians help boys read; how do we connect them to books?
Perhaps a good place to start is with polling our male patrons. I am going to survey the boys in my school and find out just what their interests are. I think I have a pretty good idea, but I may be surprised. Once the interests of male readers are known, then librarians need to supply the "goods." Maybe the guys' choices wouldn¹t be ours, but that doesn¹t make their choices wrong. Maybe some good graphic novels or comic books would scratch an itch; magazines like Vibe, The Source, Outdoor Life, and Transworld Snowboarding that give information on subjects in which they are interested could be other choices. Perhaps our collections need to be beefed up with more sports, war, action, survival, and adventure novels. All these are good places to start.
So, now we have all of these "guy-friendly, guy-enticing" reads. How do we connect them to our male readers? One of the subtlest ways is having male members of our staff (teachers, coaches, administration) get "caught" reading, modeling good reading habits. Another idea is book talking to groups or just discussing good reads one on one. The Internet should definitely be utilized by having links to guysread.com and teensread.com on our web sites and informing them of the reviews on the Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites. Providing links to other great library sites that list good reads and/or have book discussions would also be very helpful. One of the enticements I am anxious to try is to have a link on my web page to a discussion forum where the students can discuss and recommend their good reads to others. Librarians need to put the information on the net and then inform everyone where this information can be found. In today¹s society there is much information at our fingertips and so much good reading material available, it is a shame that more boys aren¹t hooked on reading. Get your bait ready, throw out your "net" and see whom you can hook.
References
Harlan, M.A., Loertscher, D.V., & McElmeel, S.L. (2006). Young adult literature and
multimedia: A quick guide. Salt Lake City, UT: Hi Willow Research & Publishing.
Irvine, M. (2004, December 5). A wired generation [Electronic version]. Wisconsin State
Journal. C2. Retrieved January 29, 2007, from http://sks.sirs.com
Scieszka, J. (2005). Guys read. Retrieved January 30, 2007, from http://www.guysread.com
Segal, E. (1982, March). Choices — for girls' — for boys': Keeping options open.
School Library Journal, 28(7), 105-107.