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Re: Boys and Genres and Covers
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From: Kenneth Cadow <Kenneth.Cadow_at_VALLEY.NET>
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:46:34 -0400
It's hard not to break into sweeping generalizations when boys (and therefore, girls) are the topic.
I just don't think boys are as interested in reading about their peers as girls are--boys generally would rather read about someone in a position or situation they admire or might shoot for rather than someone they relate to, if that makes any sense. I know I'm generalizing, but I look to the books boys often read that have been listed here: Non-fiction, fantasy, sci-fi... Very often, these don't necessarily have peer-like heroes or heroines. My son loved Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World (or whichever title it was that Jennifer Armstrong wrote on the subject of Shackleton), also, Sir Walter Raleigh and the Quest for El Dorado. And Here Comes Darryl. These did not have stories of kids in them... they were of adults he idealized. And, they weren't just of MEN, either! When he was younger, he liked a picture book about Clara, an adult, female balloonist who won some great competition despite a lot of odds. (I forget the title).
In the classroom, we often have discussions about books. There is a huge resurgence of interest in the Hobbit right now--Bilbo's 50 (isn't he?) at the outset. Hardly a peer, beloved more by the boys than the girls in my current class.
It's a little bit Gilligan / Kohlberg, I guess, but I believe that reading preference may have less to do with a hegemony, as Maia suggests, than to do with general gender preferences. Boys are not necessarily looking for a friend in a book--they are looking for a rush and a goal, a hero who may very well not be (again...) a peer whose emotions they relate to, but a figure they admire--kid or adult.
Most of my students (boys and girls, and my son and oldest daughter) liked and positively inhaled The Hunger Games. Talk about a rush!
Ken
Received on Thu 22 Apr 2010 09:46:34 PM CDT
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:46:34 -0400
It's hard not to break into sweeping generalizations when boys (and therefore, girls) are the topic.
I just don't think boys are as interested in reading about their peers as girls are--boys generally would rather read about someone in a position or situation they admire or might shoot for rather than someone they relate to, if that makes any sense. I know I'm generalizing, but I look to the books boys often read that have been listed here: Non-fiction, fantasy, sci-fi... Very often, these don't necessarily have peer-like heroes or heroines. My son loved Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World (or whichever title it was that Jennifer Armstrong wrote on the subject of Shackleton), also, Sir Walter Raleigh and the Quest for El Dorado. And Here Comes Darryl. These did not have stories of kids in them... they were of adults he idealized. And, they weren't just of MEN, either! When he was younger, he liked a picture book about Clara, an adult, female balloonist who won some great competition despite a lot of odds. (I forget the title).
In the classroom, we often have discussions about books. There is a huge resurgence of interest in the Hobbit right now--Bilbo's 50 (isn't he?) at the outset. Hardly a peer, beloved more by the boys than the girls in my current class.
It's a little bit Gilligan / Kohlberg, I guess, but I believe that reading preference may have less to do with a hegemony, as Maia suggests, than to do with general gender preferences. Boys are not necessarily looking for a friend in a book--they are looking for a rush and a goal, a hero who may very well not be (again...) a peer whose emotions they relate to, but a figure they admire--kid or adult.
Most of my students (boys and girls, and my son and oldest daughter) liked and positively inhaled The Hunger Games. Talk about a rush!
Ken
Received on Thu 22 Apr 2010 09:46:34 PM CDT
