Hello, all! An interesting article has just been published about teenage boys and reading, and with the holidays upon us, it feels like a good time for a reminder about the importance of reading.

The article is written by author Claire Mabey, and I want to draw attention to the advice from her, as well as former reading ambassador Alan Dingley, who was employed to talk to young people about books and reading for a two year term. In the article, they highlight a few useful strategies to encourage boys to read:

Choice: Research has shown that a key element to developing book culture is choice. Teenagers are more likely to read books they’ve chosen themselves. Not revelatory information, perhaps, but it may prompt parents and caregivers into methods of simply placing a book around the house, or asking someone your teenager thinks is cool to make reading recommendations to them. But before we even get to the recommendations there are other crucial factors that any adult around teenagers has to consider if they want to help them develop a reading culture:

Modelling reading: one of the reasons teenagers are living inside the internet is that adults are too. We have to model reading as an activity if we want our teenagers to follow suit. Marchant (Wellington College) confirms they’ve definitely seen that when whānau model reading at home their sons are more likely to read themselves.

Time: like busy, working adults, teenagers are also under a lot of time pressure. School, social lives, sport, arts, sleep – it all requires time. Carving out time to read is essential both at home and at school. There’s a movement towards device-free evenings (say, one a week to start with) which can help prioritise analogue activities over digital ones for the whole household.

Variety: closely related to choice, mentioned above. Teenagers need to be allowed to read what speaks to them. The main thing is it needs to be in print, or on audiobook or e-book, and outside of the lure of the internet. All forms of literature should be celebrated including graphic novels, biographies of people they admire, crime novels, sci-fi, thrillers, horror, comedy and fantasy. We shouldn’t exclude newspapers and other forms of print journalism either. 

The article also provides a big book list of recommended reads for teenage boys that are proven hits. Most of these are available for borrowing from the Library of St Bede. You can find the full article here, it’s well worth a read:

Out of the internet and into the page: books for teenage boys | The Spinoff