I saw this article,Why boys like girls books, a while ago now but am just figuring out to post entire article to the blog, so here it is. I think it's an interesting discussion point, one which would have fit perfectly into a Boston Book Coven meeting (right between the second bottle of wine and the third, possibly).
I read Nancy Drew, and my (2 years older than me) brother read the Hardy Boys, and that was that. There wasn't any overlap. He wouldn't have read The Babysitters Club, which I loved, (but I didn't love babysitting strangely enough). However, we all read The Happy Hollisters which was about boys and girls. I loved those books so much. I always wanted to go on vacation to a cabin at the lake and solve mysteries with my siblings! Maybe it's not too late!
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5 comments:
Great article... mind if I take it to the next coven meeting? :)
Interesting reading - it does make sense that the large number of librarians (and elementary school teachers) being women might skew the recommended reading away from the kind of reading boys might gravitate toward. That's a real problem. I suppose I'd never really thought of it since I have three girls. But we also don't have a lot of 'girl' books on the shelves at home (there's a lot of science fiction and horror though). My kids absolutely loved Shel Silverstein, who's always struck me as a masculine writer, but they also loved C.S. Lewis, who I think appeals to both boys and girls.
You've given me lots to think about - thanks for the link!
I'm game! You rent the cabin and I will bring the wine and my magnifying glass. Of course I hope you realize that as the oldest sister I get first dibs on who I want to be; you and Beck can fight over Bess and George!
As a tomboy, I read all of the Hardy Boys books — at least, the ghost-written series composed during my adolescent years. But, I also read all of Nancy Drew and The Babysitters Club.
[And after I "outgrew" those, I graduated on to "serious" literature — Gary Paulsen, S.E. Hinton... and Shakespeare]
Hmmm... interesting article. In The Red Queen, Matt Ridley argues that if boys and girls are left to their own devices, they still generally chose toys and books more stereotypical of their gender (i.e. boys like trucks, girls like dolls... etc.).
But it also seems that kids grow up to be more well-rounded if they're allowed to make their own choices.
It's an interesting topic but I'm not convinced by the article. I think it's mostly a matter of marketing, not the work of librarians, that makes girls read Nancy Drew and boys read Hardy Boys. These books, while they have their merits, are pretty much commercial products designed to deliberately appeal to one gender or the other.
Anyway I read at least one Nancy Drew book and possibly even a Babysitters Club book... probably like on some boring car trip. And I barely remember anything from, like, 50 Hardy Boys books.
I think that there is still a lack of good kids' lit with strong female leads, but maybe i just wouldn't know about it. For a while I was lamenting the lack of well-developed girls in Harry Potter but then I remembered my favorite character Luna.
Anyway I'll see you guys at the mystery cabin.
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