From: Sally Miller <derbymiller>
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 20:19:50 -0400

At my advanced age, I hesitate to say anything about what boys like, or what girls like, for fear my ideas may be tainted by the cultural biases I grew up with. However, as the mother of five sons, I'd like to offer the timid suggestion that we would have fewer boys shunning reading these days if we offered them more nonfiction books on science and nature. Two of my boys were impatient with fiction, no matter how exciting or well-written. But give them a book that explained the world around them and they were enthralled. I remember a simple series that was popular when my middle son was in grade school -- "Animals Do the Strangest Things, Insects do.... and finally "Fish do..." I believe to this day that this book made him decide in third grade, living in land-locked Ohio, that he would become a Scuba Diver. That was 40 years ago, but the Scuba industry still provides his livelihood. I have a sixteen year old grandson who had a similar fascination with Glen Rounds' book, and I am convinced that my newest grandson will fall in love with Douglas Florian's
"Insectlopedia" et al, when he is old enough to enjoy them. As an inveterate member of the "I don't understand" camp, when it came to science, I have to be grateful to the nonfiction writers who taught my sons -- and by extension, me -- so much. Sally Derby
Received on Wed 06 Jul 2005 07:19:50 PM CDT