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Boys turning to action-packed video games because books are ‘too girly’ for them, says…
Mail on Sunday (UK) ^ | 19:32 EST, 20 April 2014 | Andrew Levy

Posted on 04/21/2014 8:01:40 AM PDT by Olog-hai

Boys are being put off reading because of the influence women have on children’s literature, says an award-winning children’s author.

Jonathan Emmett warned that children’s books were too girly because of the influence of mostly female panels of editors, publishers, reviewers and judges.

One publishing company’s research suggested women bought 95 percent of picture books for children, he added.

The writer believes boys are being starved of what they enjoy in books, such as swashbuckling pirates, battles, or technical details about spaceships, and so are driven to more action-packed video games instead. …

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; Society
KEYWORDS: academicbias; childrensbooks; culturewar; feminism; jonathanemmett; pages; savethemales; thoughtcrime; waronliteracy
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Full Daily Mail title:
Boys turning to action-packed video games because books are ‘too girly’ for them, says award-winning children’s author
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.
1 posted on 04/21/2014 8:01:40 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

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.


2 posted on 04/21/2014 8:08:09 AM PDT by Telepathic Intruder (The only thing the Left has learned from the failures of socialism is not to call it that)
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To: Olog-hai

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.


3 posted on 04/21/2014 8:08:41 AM PDT by Little Ray (How did I end up in this hand-basket, and why is it getting so hot?)
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To: Olog-hai; Slings and Arrows
"...And there was a time in this country, a long time ago, when reading wasn't just for fags.." #IDIOCRACY


4 posted on 04/21/2014 8:11:12 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (The new witchhunt: "Do you NOW, . . . or have you EVER , . . supported traditional marriage?")
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To: Olog-hai

The Harry Potter series was written for a woman yet has tremendous, intricate detail to interest boys.


5 posted on 04/21/2014 8:11:48 AM PDT by montag813
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To: Olog-hai

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.)


6 posted on 04/21/2014 8:13:56 AM PDT by hoagy62 ("Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered..."-Thomas Paine. 1776)
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To: Olog-hai
This sounds like a weak excuse to me. There is enough "masculine" literature out there to provide several lifetimes of "non-girly" reading. Just off the top of my head, here are some books I read when I was a boy:

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.

7 posted on 04/21/2014 8:15:04 AM PDT by SamAdams76
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To: Olog-hai

Give the boy a copy of Heinlein


8 posted on 04/21/2014 8:16:00 AM PDT by struggle
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To: hoagy62

Or Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Treasure Island, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Kidnapped, etc. I read them all multiple times when I was a child. Science fiction has hundreds of well written, action packed books.


9 posted on 04/21/2014 8:18:54 AM PDT by p. henry
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To: Olog-hai

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.


10 posted on 04/21/2014 8:23:05 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Sometimes you need 7+ more ammo. LOTS MORE.)
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To: Olog-hai

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.


11 posted on 04/21/2014 8:25:15 AM PDT by albie
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To: Olog-hai

"... 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!"

12 posted on 04/21/2014 8:27:48 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: a fool in paradise

Darn it, you beat me to it.


13 posted on 04/21/2014 8:28:29 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: albie
Boys are on the defensive. Girls are encouraged to go around saying and acting like they can do anything a man can do, and do it better, plus still be a fabulous lady. And they still expect people to hold the door for them.

Boys are chauvinist pigs if they dare to take any pride in being a man, or show any interest in manly things.

14 posted on 04/21/2014 8:29:18 AM PDT by Wyrd bið ful aræd (Pope Calvin the 1st, defacto Leader of the FR Calvinist Protestant Brigades)
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To: Telepathic Intruder

This is pretty true. My 6 year old son can’t wait to play war and shoot toy guns when he gets home from school. It’s called being boys. ;-)


15 posted on 04/21/2014 8:30:36 AM PDT by miliantnutcase
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To: Olog-hai

It’s largely the lure of electronics. My 2yo granddaughter knows more about how an iphone works than I do.


16 posted on 04/21/2014 8:31:47 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: Olog-hai

school libraryies keeping out the good stuff??


17 posted on 04/21/2014 8:37:27 AM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
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To: Olog-hai
Childrens' books are too "girly"?

Probably true. Solution? Don't read "Childrens' Books".

Most are rubbish, anyway, "girly" or no.

18 posted on 04/21/2014 8:37:46 AM PDT by NorthMountain
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To: Olog-hai

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.


19 posted on 04/21/2014 8:37:51 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Entropy is high. Wear a hat! And carry an umbrella.)
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To: SamAdams76

Read all the books you mentioned, plus there was a series of novels about a baseball team. Then I found science fiction.


20 posted on 04/21/2014 8:38:23 AM PDT by Starstruck (If my reply offends, you probably don't understand sarcasm or criticism...or do.)
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