Not like there aren’t plenty of books in print and online that are non-“girly”. It’s far more than that; it has to do with family structure too, or the lack thereof.Boys turning to action-packed video games because books are ‘too girly’ for them, says award-winning children’s author
It’s true, really. The feminization of America instigated by the radical leftists and teachers unions, trying to turn boys into girls and girls into boys is going to produce a backlash of some sort. Violence is an instinct inherent to us, and we need to practice it in a controlled form to remain mentally balanced. Removing all sports from schools that show a hint of simulated violence is not going to have the expected result.
Video games also interact and engage young boys’ attention better.
I was lucky - I was read to bed each night with Kipling’s poems, Wind in the Willows and Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Video games didn’t exist, though I tried to “invent” analog versions of them. I got my “interaction” with bicycles, toy guns, and then with BB guns.
The Harry Potter series was written for a woman yet has tremendous, intricate detail to interest boys.
Give a kid a copy of...say, the “Narnia” series. Sword fights, action-packed battles, betrayal, redemption....what more could a young imagination want?
(Added, naturally, with good, healthy parenting and real-life activities.)
Red Badge of Courage
Call Of The Wild
Treasure Island
Adventures of Tom Sawyer (and then Huckleberry Finn
Lord of the Flies
And that's just scratching the surface of what's out there for boys to read.
Give the boy a copy of Heinlein
What boys need are reprints of Rafael Sabatini books and books by P. C. Wren (Beau Geste), along with some of the Horatio Hornblower series.
These helped keep me from going crazy in my teen years.
Boys will be boys. Unless raised like a caring, feeling, sub human metrosexual. Then, if they get a taste of “boy type stuff” they’ll naturally gravitate to it.
"... And there was a time in this country, a long time ago, when reading wasn't just for fags and neither was writing. People wrote books and movies, movies that had stories so you cared whose ass it was and why it was farting, and I believe that time can come again!"
It’s largely the lure of electronics. My 2yo granddaughter knows more about how an iphone works than I do.
school libraryies keeping out the good stuff??
Probably true. Solution? Don't read "Childrens' Books".
Most are rubbish, anyway, "girly" or no.
One wonders if the person quoted has been to a library and seen what’s available. I’m at the library with my children almost every week. There are plenty of books available on topics that interest stereotypical boys. Detailed studies of all kinds of animals. The “Eyewitness” science and technology series. “Ranger’s Apprentice,” “Vampirates.”
However, if they haven’t been taught to read effectively, the selection is not going to do them much good. It’s much easier to cry “Feminism!” than it is to address an educational system designed to prevent the achievement of reading fluency.
It also has a lot to do with the books chosen for school reading lists.
WBill Jr. is like every other boy. He likes superheroes, and anything military.
It's tough to find books / movies that have these themes that are age-appropriate. When it comes to my kid, I'm not a fan of nilhistic superheroes where you can't tell the good guys from the bad. Neither am I a fan of gritty, realistic war movies where every 3rd word starts with "F" and people get blown graphically apart in spectacular and lingering fashion. Not for pre-teens, not in my house.
So we watch a lot of 40's and 50's movies. We recently caught "Wake Island" with Bill Bendix...that was a real barn-burner.
Books, especially, are hard to find. When I was WBill Jr's age, it was a cinch to find anything on WW I and II. It was mostly age-appropriate - mostly - and readily available at both the local and school libraries.
Not so much anymore, at least around these parts. Books around here are more along the lines of "Tamiko Paints a Rainbow", and "LeShaun and Hernando Scrapbook For Diversity".
Fortunately, I've got a pretty good memory for what *I* used to read, and the internet makes out-of-print books just a few clicks away. :-)
J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series was kind of unique not only because of the great and complex storytelling, but the fact the novels appealed to both male and female readers (readers of both genders wer not ashamed to be fans of Rowling's novels).
Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour should be on every boy’s bookshelf!
I never thought of that but quite true
My daughters don’t play war and shoot em up vid games like the lads do
Boys are never going to want to read about getting in touch with their emotions, and sharing their feelings, intimacy,and being eager for commitment.