When I worked for Barnes and Noble one of my favorite recommendations for children’s picture books were the work of Jon Scieszka, who wrote The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. I enjoyed his titles and the illustrations.
Today I found an essay by him at the Washington Post about Why Johnny Won’t Read. He contends, and I think sadly it is true, that boys don’t see enough role models reading.
The 10-year-old boys in my neighborhood, the boys I talk to when I visit schools, the boys who write to me – “I don’t like books, but I kind of liked one of yours” – these boys don’t see reading as a “guy” activity. And this perception of reading is showing up in grim statistics, most notably those provided by U.S. Department of Education reading tests, which have shown boys scoring lower than girls every year, in every age group – for the past 30 years.
I know I got my first taste for reading from my father who used to sit in his armchair with the latest copy of Analog, smoking a cigarette. I skipped the second addiction but went whole hog for the first. I used to carry three or four extra books to every one of my junior high and high school classes. I still remember how astonished Mrs. Nichols was in 6th grade when I told her that I was reading Watership Down. I loved reading and I still do. So visit Jon’s web site www.guysread.com, download the poster, and read to your sons.
