From: Monica R. Edinger <edinger>
Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 09:32:25 -0500

CHURCHMAN at nwf.org writes:
 (that is why I like Child_lit better - you don't get your hand virtually slapped if you go off topic! ccbc-net feels too formal for me most of the time.)


Actually I don't find this the case generally. Just that I do have a particularly literal group of girls this year. Their are only two girls who read at a more abstract level wheras there are a number of boys who do. Last year I had more of a balance regarding this. A large group of girls thinking at a very high level. Wouldn't have thought twice about reading Holes to them. I hope that my post didn't give the idea that I was catagoring all my girls in a lump. Child_litters know me but ccbc-net people don't. Do you think I should follow-up to clarify this? I have observed that there are books that distinctly attract boys such as various sports writers (Matt Christopher, for example, never had a girl read him) and some that only girls read, e.g Babysitters Club, Naylor's Alice books. Then there are those that just feel male, like Holes, but which both genders like.

I think that we need to acknowledge tastes and that often there are gender differences associated with taste. When this erupted on Child_lit someone proudly wrote of a fifth grade boy reading Little Women. Now, that is no typical fifth grade boy, I'm sorry. That is a book that I've seen many girls attempt, never a boy. Whether we want it so or not in the real world Little Women is read 99% by girls not boys (at least not by choice!)

Thanks for asking! Monica
Received on Wed 17 Feb 1999 08:32:25 AM CST