Guys Write for Guys Read

by Jon Scieszka (Editor)

What is a typical guy moment, anyhow? Daniel Pinkwater remembers the disappointment of meeting his Lone Star Ranger hero up close and personal. Gordon Korman relishes the goofy ultra violence of the old Looney Tunes cartoons. Stephen King realizes that having your two hundred-pound babysitter fart on your five-year-old head prepares you for any literary criticism. And that's just a sampling from Guys Write for Guys Read, a fast-paced, high energy collection of short works: stories, essays, columns, cartoons, anecdotes, and artwork by today's most popular writers and illustrators. Guys Write will feature work from Brian Jacques, Jerry Spinelli, Chris Crutcher, Mo Willems, Chris Van Allsburg, Matt Groening, Neil Gaiman, the editors and columnists from Sports Illustrated,The Onion and Esquire magazines, and more. Selected by voters at the Guys Read Web site and compiled by Jon Scieszka, this wide-ranging collection of authors and illustrators shows that guys do read . . . and will read more if given things they enjoy reading.

The truth about the world / Lloyd Alexander --
My maturity, in flames / M.T. Anderson --
Daniel Adel --
Stone=throw / Marc Aronson --
Superpatriot / Avi --
The crossing / T.A. Barron --
Reading can be dangerous / Tedd Arnold --
My entire football career / David Bauer --
Only a game / Edward Bloor --
Gondanaland / Tony DiTerlizzi --
E, A minor, B7 / Bruce Brooks --
My brilliant invention / William G. Brozo --
A real guy / Michael Cart --
My life of crime / Peter Cherches --
Triplets / Timothy Basil Ering --
The legend of Tripod / Eoin Colfer --
"O" foods / Chris Crutcher --
What I'm telling you is the truth / Terry Davis --
The rules / Esquire --
Any questions, class? / Matt Groening --
Guide for guys / Douglas Florian --
Why books are dangerous / Neil Gaiman --
Brett Helquist --
The follower / Jack Gantos --
The red fire engine / David Macaulay --
There must be a mistake / Morris Gleitzman --
Thwacked / David Granger --
My superpowers / Dan Greenburg --
My dad is better than your dad / Andy Griffiths --
Adam McCauley --
Let's go to the videotape / Dan Gutman --
Boys, beer, barf, and bonding / Bruce Hale --
Shooting the breeze / Dave and Liam McKean --
Principals and principles / Daniel Handler --
A great, big, beautiful world / Will Hobbs --
My French teacher tried to kill me / Anthony Horowitz --
Learning how to be a boy / James Howe --
Lightning man / Jarrett J. Krosoczka --
A casualty of war / Brian Jacques --
Wrestling with reading / Patrick Jones --
Dav Pilkey --
from "on writing" / Stephen King --
Pop / David Klass --
Guy things / Gordon Korman --
Role-playing and discovery / Jerry Pinkey --
Busted / Erik P. Kraft --
Copies / David Lubar --
When all bicycles were black / Vladimir Radunsky --
The pellet in the paint can / Chris Lynch --
Unfinished business / John Marsden --
Sergio Ruzzier --
Daydreams / Walter Dean Myers --
Licky Dave / Garth Nix --
Anything can happen / Kenneth Oppel --
No, David! / David Shannon --
Dead body / Jerry Pallotta --
It all began with books / Christopher Paolini --
from "How Angel Peterson got his name" / Gary Paulsen --
The 1928 Packard / Richard Peck --
Lone [star] Ranger / Daniel Pinkwater --
David Sheldon --
A day at the zoo ; Boys are big experts / Jack Prelutsky --
"Funny you should ask" from The life of Reilly / Rick Relly --
Peter Sís --
The death of a writer / David Rice --
Sweet dreams / Steve Rushin --
Maybe yeah, maybe nah / René Saldaña, Jr. --
Bufos / Graham Salisbury --
Lane Smith --
Brothers / Jon Scieszka --
GUYfesto --
who we are! / Darren Shan --
The day I threw the Trivia Bowl / Robert Siegel --
Bringing up 'saur subjects / Rick Spears --
Roy G. Biv / Seymour Simon --
The hammer and the bullet / Arthur Slade --
The masque of the red death / William Sleator --
Reading and relating / Michael W. Smith --
The dragon in the big glommy castle / Mark Teague --
Bombs, girls / Jerry Spinelli --
Conduct / Rick Telander --
The fire escape / Ned Vizzini --
My first step to the White House / Chris Van Allsburg --
Give a guy a newspaper / Bill Vlasic --
Eat dirt / Rich Wallace --
Training the bear / Will Weaver --
Pals forever: me Bobby Fisher, and the Hardy Boys / Jeffrey D. Wilhelm --
Aw, nuts! / Mo Willems --
"Puzzle pieces" from The lost garden / Laurence Yep --
Heartbeat / David Yoo --
I was young in the old days / Paul O. Zelinsky

Genres: Short Stories, Young Adult, Humor, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Middle Grade, Childrens

272 pages, Paperback

First published April 21, 2005

About the author

Jon Scieszka is an American children's writer, best known for picture books created with the illustrator Lane Smith. He is also a nationally recognized reading advocate, and the founder of Guys Read – a web-based literacy program for boys whose mission is "to help boys become self-motivated, lifelong readers."

Reviews

[Katie Carson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I use this book often when discussing memoir and short story writing with my seventh grades. With its humor and realistic writing styles, students of both genders seem to really enjoy this collection.
What I find most beneficial from using this text in my Language Arts classroom is the positive promotion of male writers and readers. Most of this collection includes stories written by male authors, well-known by my students, who discuss some aspect of their personal lives, which often include writing. Many are memoirs written as reflections of how challenging writing could be in elementary, middle and high school. Some are stories written about the harassment endured as these writers grew up with a passion for what their peers considered a "feminine practice." Some of simply silly stories to be shared with others. Nonetheless, each story is short, succinct and well written by some of the most inspiring male writers today.
I enjoy using this text for both genders, not simply males, to positively promote writing as a creative outlet for students. I hope that by hearing the stories of many successful writers, my students will connect to their struggles, feel encouraged by their stories and hopefully get a laugh or two out as they go.
Organized mainly in alphabetical order, with select pieces interjected, this book is a great read either in its entirety or in excerpts. I find this very helpful as a teacher, particularly when I am looking for a specific skill or topic to discuss.
For example, I have used Stephen King and David Shannon's pieces from Guys Read to discuss author voice. We later compared these narrative writings to the author's published fiction works. I have also used many of the short stories to highlight the author's writing format and the accompaniment of illustrations to the text.
I would strongly encourage at least skimming through this book for selections from your favorite male authors. I doubt you will be disappointed with what you find!

[Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is made up of a ton of funny short stories. At first you might think this book is for kids only, but I think that it can range through any age. This book is not for girls only because a book is a book anyone is aloud to read it. I once read a Nance Drew book to see why every girl liked it so much. I hope that you read this book, I would recommend this book to anyone.

This book really made me laugh. I thought that this book was a real knee slapper. This book is conjoined of multiple short stories, comic strips, and some cool art. I'm now 13 and I laughed, I think that any kid would this this book is funny. I'm so happy that my teacher recommend me this book because recently I've been only reading these books that I can't relate to at all, so this book made me get back into funny books and short stories.

[Xavierhardy]

I like this book because it shows how guys care about boys reading a book instead of not being part of the wrong out side world that's going around us

[Queen-Patricia Chiddix]

It was interestingly weird.

[Amy Calkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty graphic depictions of suffering. I think this would be a book lots of boys would enjoy and girls too, keeps your interest, I can recommend this to my students but a little gory for me.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these short stories were really funny and I'll remember them for a long time. Some were so good that I had to grab my fourteen-year-old nephew who has a love/hate relationship with reading (sometimes he's hot, sometimes he's not) and have him read it right then. Others were boring (or would have been boring to a young guy). It was a 50/50 split for me (hence the C rating).

Most poignant piece in my opinion was "Funny You Should Ask" from The Life of Reilly by Rick Reilly where the author gives his son a very long and philosohical answer to his question of, "Dad, why are we here?" only to later receive clarification from the son that, "No, what I meant is, why are we here when Mom said to pick her up forty minutes ago?"

Two Funniest Stories:
#1: A super-short story about a time when a class of fourth graders is assigned to write a short story about what they'd do if they were Robinson Crusoe and their teacher said, "...You can write anything you want." One kid chooses to write, "This is my story: One day I was on a ship and it crashed on an island. There was this monster and it ate me. The End." The kid ended up getting sent to the principal's office and got paddled. So much for writing anything you want. David Rice knocked out the full story arc in only six paragraphs in "The Death of a Writer."

#2: A story about a guy who, when he was younger, watched his nephew pee on an electric fence (with startling results) and then sees his son do the same thing when he's about 14 years old (with painful results). The son asks if he'll ever outgrow the phase of doing stuff like that and the dad responds, "It's the way we are." The story telling is humorous and sweet and comes from the award-winning author Gary Paulson (who's not known for his humor) in an excerpt from How Angel Peterson Got His Name.

The most memorable story was Chris Crutcher's essay on getting initiated (aka, hazed) into his high school's athletic fraternity. I had my nephew read this one and his question when he was done was, "Why'd they have to be naked?" Classic.

I think this book, and what the Guys Read organization does as a whole, is awesome. I'm not sure this is a book that I'd recommend for a lot of middle grade/young adult guys to sit down and read straight through like I did, but I could definitely see recommending selected stories to guys at different times to meet certain needs (like when my nephew was in his room, playing his guitar too loudly--he's teaching himself to play--and I had him read an essay I'd just finished reading, "E, A Minor, B7" by Bruce Brooks, about how every 8th grade boy is in a band. He read it, laughed, and kept strumming). I could see teachers integrating selected essays into their curriculum as nice adjuncts, but it's not necessarily a cover-to-cover anthology... take the foreward's advice:

"So look around in here for something you life. You don't have to read in any order. You don't have to like everything you read. You don't even have to read everything."

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Guys Write for Guys Read is an anthology of stories, essays, magazine columns, cartoons, anecdotes and artwork by 90 different male authors and illustrators, including Avi, Neil Gaiman, Matt Groening, Brian Jacques, Stephen King, John Marsden, David Shannon and Chris Van Allsburg (to name just a few).
Each piece is followed by a brief bio that states where the author grew up, where he lives now, offers one random fact (and, for illustrators, a sample piece of art), and provides a bibliography of up to three books that interested readers might seek out. Jon Scieszka, who edited this book, has always been a proponent of writing for boys and getting them to read, and that is his purpose here. Each story is very short – perfect for guys!
I expected this book to be a collection of short stories for boys. It was not. It was a collection of articles written by guy authors about being boys, their childhoods and sometimes how they came to be authors. I would have liked it better if it had been short stories. This book makes the presumption that boys (who are usually defined as non-readers) have a favorite author, and will pick though the book looking for his story. Not always true, and some of the stories/memoirs read like old guys reminiscing about the good old days. Obviously best for "guy" readers, ages 10 and up.

[Zane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about a 9 on my scale because it reaches out to all kinds of readers. It includes comedy, graphic novels and biographies. The book was not written by one person but multiple authors. This is one of the best short story books I have ever read. Its short stories make it easy to put down but also easy to lose your place. If you’re a reader like me you will skip around in the book and read the stories that you’re interested by. I will have to say the book is very stereotypical about women but it is used in a comedy kind of way. There is no protagonist of the story because it is obviously a book full of a buddle of short stories and tales. There are 3 main thinks that come to my mind when I read this book and they are two comics and a funny list. The list consists of made up rules on how to succeed in life. One of the comic told me that the writer of the Simpsons actually had the life of the Simpsons from Bart’s point of view. The last comic is a school that you will need to read to understand. I recommend this book to people who enjoy short stories and also people who enjoy the comedy genre.

[Adela · Rating 1 out of 5]

There was one actually funny thing in this, and that is the Mo Willems comic strip. I don't really know how Jon Scieska and his cronies expect to connect with non-reader boys with stories about being a boy when the authors are telling about being a boy (or teenager) in the 1950s and 1960--and in one case in the 1940s celebrating the end of World War II. The stories were mostly really boring, very pointless, and did not make me want to read the authors' other work. Even the Eoin Colfer story--and I love Eoin Colfer--was extremely uninteresting, and he is very funny in person and in print.

All in all, this book is probably interesting to either the grandfathers of the kids it is geared at or the really old dads who have little kids instead of the grandkids that nature intended at their ripe old age. The boys themselves are losing this book as quickly as they can.

[Kendra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up and read a chunk of it while at the library, thinking that it might be something fun for Gabe to read. The essay by Scieszka was so funny I kept laughing out loud.(Most library patrons do not find this kind of behavior amusing; the man closest to me jumped with every chuckle.) Sage came over to see what all the fuss was about and as we read it together, we were both laughing so hard, the tears started flowing. (We left quickly after so as not to find ourselves ejected from the library.) So while the title indicates that this is a book of guys writing for guys...we girls find some of it hysterical also!

[louisa]

Lloyd Alexander started it off wonderfully (of course!); Terry Davis's made me tear up; Jon Scieszka's made me laugh so hard I couldn't breathe for 5 minutes or so; and I loved Richard Peck's story about his bully-correcting, prank-loving father. The essays and comics are short (1-3 pages on average), and can be hit or miss even with authors you love (Neil Gaiman's didn't do much for me). But it's a nifty little book whose proceeds go to charity (also lots of great illustrators and artists involved as well).

[Gardner · Rating 1 out of 5]

SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK

[Eddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing! It is generally for boys that are trying to get into reading (of course not me because I love to read), and are a bunch of short stories that involve authors sharing stories from their childhood.

[Zakaria Faid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thursday, October 16, 2014

In the short story, “The Truth about the World”, Lloyd Alexander conveys that overcoming obstacles in life and that over-thinking is a poor choice in adolescent years. In addition, the main character decided to request a date for the first time, despite the fact that he doesn’t know the process ;he succeeded. For instance, “I finally built enough nerve…To my amazement, she accepted…”(Alexander 13). Consequently, the main character over-thought the glorious day that he hurt his foot ;thinking it would rather impress the girl he has a crush on. For example, when he was playing football in gym class and decided to hit the coming ball, and not understanding that it was coming with power. In deduction, for a pupil to succeed they need to “be brief, be brilliant, be done”.


In the short story, “My Maturity, in Flames”, M.T. Anderson advocates that self-awareness and responsibility are important in life. Furthermore, the main character is assigned to watch over a neighboring house of his friend in New Hampshire. For instance, “I watered the geraniums. I washed all the dishes by hand. I avoided making any impressions on the cushions…” (Anderson 15). Moreover, as the the main character ended the two weeks of supervision, he decided to drive away. Consequently, as he locks the house, he begins to have a doubt on whether or not he turned off the iron. He drives away for some miles thinking about all the consequences of a remaining active iron. Finally it turned out to be true, hence he had to phone call all the neighbors asking them to check. To conclude, self-awareness is indeed ideal in life.



In the short story, “Stone = Throw”, Marc Aronson proposes how sometimes in life unexpected natural problems get thrown at you. First of all, the main character decides to finally move to the suburbs rather than the city because of the replacement of the Central Park, where they played all sorts of sports, into a grass museum where wealthy ladies rented land to grow stuff. For instance, when the main character was in the city he was enabled to perform various sports, however he has to move to the suburbs where there is no suitable arena for sports, which ends up affecting his son’s personal and athletic life unlike his dad. Secondly, the main character has to overcome the fact that his son, Sasha, is having a hard time applying rules in games unlike other kids. For instance, “Throwing stones is not something he does to sharpen his aim or to improve his ability to pitch. It is just a demand that landscape makes on his nervous system” (Aronson 23). In brief, anyone has to accept the unexpected and deal with it as much as it tends to need in order to deduct or entirely stop.



Wednesday, October 22, 2014

The atmosphere is very important within the short story, “Reading Can Be Dangerous”. Nevertheless, Tedd Arnold claimed the process on behalf the first impression to the word reading in teenage brains. In addition, the main character satirizes the importance of reading by replicating live incidents. For instance, “…a big white cockatoo named Luke…He flew from his perch, swooped over the top of my book, and landed right on my spaghetti and meatballs” (Arnold 31). Likewise, the main character embellishes in the flaws of reading. For instance, when overwhelmingly getting engaged by a story, then remaining off-task which leads to rereading or causing trouble in class. In deduction, this short story is not meant to subordinate reading’s importance, but to display a consensus that everything has its advantages as well as disadvantages.


The setting is indeed distinct within the short story, “My Entire Football Career”. With that said, David Bauer proposed that the smallest effect happens to contain a surplus impact ;as well as a change in attitude and behavior. Furthermore, the main character had to play football rather than baseball due to many reasons. For instance, the state he lived in and in particular the new school he moved to. In supplementary, the main character attended the school’s football team in tardiness, and subsequently he had to get his own school-matching kit. For example, “Don’t worry said my mother, I’ll just get you a plain jersey and dye it green, Okay but what about the numbers, Mom…” (Bauer 33). In termination, the setting indeed correlates to the passage’s meaning because without the setting than there will be no reason to the shift between baseball and football : the main conflict.


The theme is really conspicuous within the short story, “Only a Game”. Nonetheless, Edward Bloor reclaims the unfortunate loss of general culture in adolescence. To add, the main character treats soccer as a miscellaneous sport for it is not given importance in the US. For instance, “At least one war has been ignited by a soccer game-” (Bloor 36). Moreover, soccer is negatively described in adolescent years. For example, when the main character claimed that all soccer games in his school are ended with spontaneous scores such as 11-0 than 10-1. Long story short, the theme is wisely conveyed through the passage for it correlates to the conflict of the story and foremost that it is lively present.



Wednesday,October 29, 2014

The development of personages is significantly relative to the story “What I’m Telling You Is the Truth”. Nonetheless, Davis tries to gets familiar with his father’s absence as he ages due to the domain his father is in, car business. For example, “I wish my dad had let me know him” (Davis 66). Furthermore, Davis feels like his father’s absence might have affected his career, now that he’s living in Rio de Janeiro. For instance, “I needed to know what a man was” (Davis 66). In assumption, the character’s development due to the atmosphere is indeed important, also this incident is crucial because it tends to apply to the generation we‘re in ; how sometimes parents feel the need of an occupation or money than family.

The setting is indeed copious and relevant to the story by Brett Helquist. Moreover, the Baudelaire family experiences memorable trips, as they travel every summer. For example, “Every summer, Mom and Dad loaded us into the car for summer vacation” (Helquist 77). In addition, the story gets intense once the Baudelaire family grows into seven children in one car, forasmuch as there are long hours and the passengers begin to feel the cacophonous of the road, returning the summer vacations insane rather than memorable. In deduction, the setting is indeed admissible to the story hence it led to different outcomes ; bad ones as well as good ones.

The theme or moral is indeed important as it relates to the story “The Red Fire Engine”. In addition, the main character use to read a surplus amount of books, however concentrated more on illustrations rather than the actual text. For example, when he was fifteen and realized that reading could be fun. Furthermore, the main character was honored for his fantastic piece of art by being deposited on the wall. For instance, “…their unexpected attention and having something I’d made given a place of honor on the wall created an overwhelming and totally unfamiliar sense of pride inside me…That desire, I suppose, was the beginning of my career…” (Macaulay 84). In conclusion, the moral :self-confidence and self-love are indeed crucially applicable to this story.



Thursday, November 6, 2014

The setting within the story, “A Great, Big, Beautiful World” tends to correlate to the layout of the story’s meaning. Furthermore, the main personage endures numerous degrees of geographical beauty with his family. For example, the visit to Alaska where they played baseball, fish hooked, and fell in awe with rivers and bear tracks in the mud. In addition, the main character starts to think of voyages as a passion or burning desire, for it happens to be that all he glimpses effects his indulgence of reading, positively. For instance, “The North keeps calling me back, to adventures …I start thinking of a story. I mined my personal experiences heavily for Far North, Wild Man Island, Leaving Protection” (Hobbs 116). In conclusion, the main character advocates that the world is “Great, Big, Beautiful” due to his experiences.


The development of character within the story, “My French Teacher Tried to Kill Me” tends to link to the story’s outcome. For starters, Horowitz displays a bad impression about his French teacher. In other words, “…he wasn’t a French teacher at all. Marco-Pierre St. John Robson was actually an international assassin…those gray, ugly eyes. The rubbery skin…” (Horowitz 117). To add to that, Horowitz began to dream: day and night, about all possible hidden aspects on behalf his French teacher as well as his shelter in paradigm of his interference in this extravaganza. In other words, “There was a bottle of ink on my desk and the lid was off…ink splattered over his face and into his eyes…the back of my chair crashed into his stomach…” (Horowitz 118). In assumption, the development of Horowitz towards dealing with his own interpretations is indeed crucial to the context and flow of the story.


The theme of the story, “Learning How to Be a Boy” tends to associate to the story’s flow. Moreover, the main character faces a conflict with Kevin Hennessy, who calls him names, despite their contract about the dearth of name-calling. For example, “I’m not calling you a name, faggot, I’m calling you a girl, which you are” (Howe 119). In supplementary, the protagonist finally decided to alter into a boy according to Kevin’s exacerbation throughout the impossible. In other words, the main character decided to take Skeezie’s tips into consideration, however it turns out to be that Skeezie’s tips are indecipherably conveyed forasmuch as they generally mean, “Just be who you are, OK?” (Howe 121) In deduction, the theme: static Simplicity and Consistency is indeed conspicuous to the flow of the story.


Friday,November 14,2014

The moral, over thinking leads to danger or "don't reinvent the wheel" tends to apply perfectly to the series of events within the story,"Lone Ranger". Nevertheless, the main personage reveals the truth about his family's routine in relevance with his dad's domain. For example, when the main personage is just too bored that he wants to leave with his mother, who is collecting some thick envelope, to a Midwestern town that turns out to be regretting; "It was a dusty, wind-blown place" (Pinkwater). Furthermore, the main personage traps himself when his biddings are successfully displayed by his mother. For instance, "I was the Lone Ranger's biggest,most ardent,most crazed fan...Lone Star Ranger was small.His clothes were dirty...the Lone Star Ranger taught me a lesson...It may not always be a good idea to meet your heroes close up and personal"(Pinkwater 188-9-190). In assumption, the moral indeed applies to the story's series of events.

The main character's lifestyle tends to enhance within the story,"No,David!". With that said, David's hopes were low according to the fact that his 5-year old drawings would turn in handy. In other words,"It was just drawings of me doing things I wasn't supposed to do, and the only words in the whole book were "no" and "David"(Shannon 174). Moreover, David tries to utilize preserved primeval set of drawings and alter them into a professional and pleasing to read published book according to his impression on his own piece of excretion. In other words,"My mom saved the book and showed it to me a few years ago" (Shannon 174). Long story short,the main character's enhancement in terms of lifestyle affected himself and later on the audience due to the creative and unique book conveying a simple and crucial true story.

The general and most conspicuous lesson of Simplicity is applied within the story,"The Death of a Writer"; though lacked. Nonetheless, the main character slightly displays the lack of simplicity throughout the process of after being given instructions, hence he is too open minded. For instance,"We had to pretend we were shipwrecked on a deserted island...I thought about it all morning and during lunch.In the playground..." (Rice 202). In addition, Ramiro portrays a surplus exacerbation of simplicity. For example, "You heard her.She said we could write about anything we want.We can't get in trouble for writing what we want to write...'This is my story,' he said. 'One day I was on a ship and it crashed on an island. There was this monster and it ate me" (Rice 203). In deduction, the general lesson of simplicity is supposedly indeed lacked.

[Klarissa Hanni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guys Read is a book composed of several non-fiction short stories that are based on history. They are very well written, remarkably entertaining, and include a few illustrations. There are different types of writing like graphic literature, poems with definitions, and regular prose. Several references are included at the end of nearly every story. Most writers are well-known and have been awarded medals or other accreditation as proof of reliability. While they are informative and captivating, they are not comparable to actual historic textbooks.

I really liked reading these stories! They were extremely entertaining despite being full of dates and times and places. Each character was given life and I nearly forgot I was reading a story that actually took place a long time ago. The chosen stories are definitely dramatic ones. One thing I found in common with all of the stories is that they each have a gruesome or morbid aspect that can make it disturbing for the reader. This book is definitely directed towards tweens. They are super easy reads and I think that they would be great for young readers to read in order to open their minds to learning about history. This book definitely proves that history is NOT boring!

Warnings: Violence, suggestive language, death, details of pain and torture, and survival realities like drinking urine, animal intestines, animal blood, and other things.

[Cara Sabin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories that are all true narratives. There are 10 narratives total, and each is unique with a different author. One of the short stories is titled, 'Sahara Shipwreck' and tells the story of a captain and his crew who travel through the Sahara, get bought as slaves and are striving to get back to America suffering greatly on the way. Another story is about what it's like to be a cartoon and how he wanted to be a cartoonist growing up. They're all different- but all extremely well-written and easy to get into.

I really enjoyed the way these stories were written, even though some of the stories I didn't know much about the topics before. The authors are all extremely proficient writers and you're intrigued right off the bat when reading these stories. I thought it was a good read, but there were also some stories that I enjoyed more than others.

Content Warnings:
-death
-suffering
-torture
-slavery

[Cormac Maher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guys Write for Guys Read by Jon Scieszka, is a biography short story compilation featuring stories ranging from Family relationship, to stories about birds flying into people's spaghetti. Because the book is set in multiple short stories in different perspectives, it has no one summary, yet it has themes. And one of these themes is coming of age. This is illustrated in many stories like, "learning how to be a Boy" a story about a boy learning to not care what others think of him. many of these stories are thread through this theme. Guys Write for Guys Read is a seemingly not to deep or meaningful book. But take a look closer, and it has some interesting themes that make this a great book for kids growing up.

[Alyssa Skinner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know that I'm not a guy, but I have been an avid reader, for many years, of several of the authors featured in this book, and am also a huge fan of Brett Helquist and Tony Diterlizzi's work, so when I first found this book at the library many years ago, I gathered up my courage, and checked it out anyway. In my opinion, it was well worth it.
So, when the library did their most recent purge of books that weren't being read, and I saw this one on the chopping block. . . it had to come home with me.
Maybe some of the boys should have actually tried reading it, and it wouldn't have had to go home with an old lady. Silly boys.

[Lizzy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am definitely not the target audience for this book, but that being said, I didn't always feel like the writers themselves were writing for the target audience. Most of these stories are adult men reminiscing about their childhood, but the way they write about it is still so clearly from an adult perspective. Does that make sense? I don't think I would recommend this book to my students, although I know at least one of them has read it. Finally, like any short story collection from multiple authors, I liked some far more than others.

[Melissa Emery · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is compiled of 10 different short stories that are nonfiction, but based on actual events or people that took place. One of them I read called Jumbo talks about this huge elephant that is in this traveling circus that everyone wants to see. Another one was about different poems about science and the universe. These short stories are made for boys to keep them entertained while reading.

I really enjoyed the different short stories that I read! I found myself laughing and being so impressed with the writing that was in them. I was also able to learn about science and history along the way! Such a fun book for boys who need something to read and will definitely keep them entertained!

-The short story Mojo, Moonshine and the Blues talked about drinking and different drugs

[Pierson]

I liked this book because it was a very fun book to read. There are a bunch of stories from different people instead of just one long story. These stories were very funny and I could relate to them because it was about guys in highschool. The authors did a very good job of making each passage short but very interesting. I would highly recommend this book to a friend because it was very interesting and it brought back a lot of good memories.

[Isaac · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a bunch of guys telling stories about there lives. Some are about girls. Some are about stupid things they did as a kid. A lot of them were funny, a lot were dumb.



I liked the book it was very funny in my opinion. If there was one thing i could change it would be that they would not be bunch of different stories. I would rate this book 4/5.

[Maliththa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for a preteen boy. And their parents. This will give the boy a lot to think about and the parents some great platforms to have conversations with their boys.
I thank my child s teacher for giving this book to my son at the right time.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for boys--and girls! Many of the stories I'd like to use for our upcoming Biography unit for students to get a feel for recreating a specific moment in a person's life. Great narrative non-fiction choice.

[Hunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edited by Jon Scieszka, Guys Write for Guys Read is a collection written by many authors about their childhood or stories that they have written. This hilarious memoir contributed by many guys will get you laughing and understanding what it is like to be a guy.

[Pammie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book of short stories I read to my kids, 7 and 11. They loved the stories and so did I. A laugh-out-loud book that makes you think and reminds me that my kids don’t misbehave nearly as bad as I think they do.

[Abby Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hysterical little stories about what makes guys guys from great writers. I giggled a lot.

[Paul Delacruz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice collection of excerpts from male authors to stimulate reading for school age boys.

[Bentley Snyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book

[Adam Levy · Rating 1 out of 5]

not great