To Be a Boy, to Be a Reader: Engaging Teen and Preteen Boys in Active Literacy

by William G. Brozo

When it comes to reading, teen and preteen boys are your toughest students. Now, solutions are at hand in this one-of-a-kind book that offers ideas for using literature with positive male archetypes to motivate boys to read and capture their unique imaginations. Author Brozo defines several such archetypes and shares instructional vignettes in which teachers across the curriculum develop innovative strategies and activities using young adult books with these archetypes. He also shows you how to work with adults in the community to positively influence boys' literacy behavior and create conditions that encourage them to read. A foreword by Jon Scieszka explains why the need to help boys is so urgent. An appendix offers a booklist of 300 titles to help you identify appropriate archetypal literature. Although this book is geared specifically toward helping boys, the author points out that the strategies presented may also benefit girls by exposing them to positive male images that are unlike the stereotypes of masculinity they are exposed to every day. To Be a Boy, To Be a Reader will help you stop the cycle of adolescent boys' struggles with reading and engender a love of reading that last a lifetime. The International Reading Association is the world's premier organization of literacy professionals. Our titles promote reading by providing professional development to continuously advance the quality of literacy instruction and research. Research-based, classroom-tested, and peer-reviewed, IRA titles are among the highest quality tools that help literacy professionals do their jobs better. Some of the many areas we publish in -Comprehension
-Response To Intervention/Struggling Readers
-Early Literacy
-Adolescent Literacy
-Assessment
-Literacy Coaching
-Research And Policy

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Professional Development, Teaching

208 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2002

Reviews

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd give this book 3.5 if I could. The book's premise is that boys can get into reading via their personal interests and books which deal with themes which are traditionally boyish - war, adventure, non-fiction. Boys also favour books with boy protagonists which links into one of the most interesting aspects of the books, the male archetypes. Brozo uses books with characters that boys can identify with and that provide good examples of masculinity based on the male archetypes which appeal to boys. There is a section on each archetype with book recommendations and examples of teaching. I found the idea of the archetypes based on Jung psychology really interesting but the teaching examples were somewhat disappointing, nothing new or particularly creative, otherwise a very good book for people looking for ideas to engage boys in reading.

[Salsabrarian]

Author describes how to find books for boys using 10 positive male archetypes: Pilgrim (searcher, wanderer, wants to improve life), Patriarch (care, nobility, self-sacrifice), King (trustworthy, leader), Warrior (brave, edifying, honorable), Magician (intuitive, clever), Wildman (lustiness, unpredictability, independent), Healer (mystical, spiritual, heals societies that are suffering), Prophet (controversial, piques consciousness, revelations), Trickster (irreverent, funny, satirical), and Lover (giving, caring, intimate). By teaching these archetypes through literature, the author believes that boys will find reading relevant to their lives and learn about honorable ways to be a man.