An Underrated Reason Boys Are Reading Less
The Atlantic · Sophia Nguyen ·
A lack of male protagonists is making it harder to get young readers into books.
A lack of male protagonists is making it harder to get young readers into books.
At first, Afoma Umesi brushed off the comments. At her review website, Reading Middle Grade, a core part of her work was curating literary guides for elementary and middle schoolers. The commenters were, of course, adults—mostly parents and educators, keen on finding books that would delight the children in their life. The “middle grade” period, spanning ages 8 to 12, is thought to be the crucial moment when kids do—or don’t—become lifelong readers. And whenever Umesi posted a new roundup—say, “7 Tween Books Like Little Women” or “Middle Grade Books to Make You Cry”—at least one person would ask, Do you have anything for boys?
Her initial response was annoyance. “What do you think this is, the 15th century?” Umesi remembers thinking. Yet when she deliberately sought out such titles, they were unexpectedly scarce. “It was kind of like I was running into a wall,” she told me.
Read the full story at The Atlantic · All coverage of this story