How can books for British children not feature Dickens, or a Sherlock Holmes novel? And why are these books about "working-class" heroes"? In fact, why even have a list?Boys (and girls) should read for pleasure, because a friend recommended the book or because the blurb sounded good, not because it is on a list that will be issued by english teachers across the country.

Sam, Leyland,

in response to xf-108, "Girl, 17's" 25 books could also be by any of these authors. I'm 17, and female, and I've read books by Dostoyevsky, Nietzsche and Tolstoy, to name a few.
Stop generalising that teenage girls only read chick lit and celebrity auto-biographies. It couldn't be further from the truth.
I must admit that Nietzsche boggles my brain, but don't think that teenage females are stupid and clearly not as clever as boys who have only read one book by Kierkegaard.

However, I believe that reading anything is a good thing. Why should people be elitist when it comes to books?

Jodie, Nottingham, UK

sorry pup, no chance of Wind in the Willows I fear. Note that this is supposed to be a list of working -class heroes. After all, these children must be trained to vote Labour. So probably no dangerous eliteism like Agatha Christie, Biggles or Sherlock Holmes either...

alan, london, london

"Reading is for Girls." is the phrase I hear most from boys. Authors have given up writing boy's stories. I looked up a site for the best books for teenagers, and the first ten were girl's books written by women. And here you are sprouting "Tom Sawyer" and "Shane". Horrowitz does his bit, but where are the other modern books for boys? Why not try Amazon for "Colonists" - a story about kids on Mars, or "Jaunter" a boy who can teleport. Who writes for boys, anyway? They prefer playing with their P.Cs to reading, any day.

Kieran, Brisbane, Queensland

Something Wicked This Way Comes by the great Ray Bradbury
really should be a must. I suppose Wind in the Willows would be a book too far?

pup, Halesowen,

This looks more like what people think boys *ought to* read rather than what they might *want* to read. If the point of this exercise to entice them to read, stop turning up your noses at periodicals and instead provide libraries with subscriptions to sport and auto magazines. My colleague used these extensively with her literacy classes of urban minority high school boys, and it took much better than anything on your list. Once they're in the habit of reading, it's much easier to sneak in books about sport and auto racing and from there it's only a short step to fiction. Classics are not to everyone's taste - I have always read anything in sight, including the backs of breakfast food boxes if that was all that was in the room, but could never get through a chapter of Dickens.
BTW, someone appears to have lost it altogether. WHAT IS CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS DOING ON A LIST FOR ADOLESCENTS?.

Linda, Albany NY ,

Perhaps I could suggest an English dictionary is added to the above list, maybe then our children will stop Americanising the English language, or should that be Americanizing! Then again I suppose I shouldn't be suprised, after all our own government produces official document's with spelling 'mistakes', Microsoft word has a lot to answer for.

Les, Southport, England

No Dickens for English boys?
Mmmmmm...

Tato Dulanci, Vitoria, Spain

Never judge a book by its movie

Toby, Calcutta, India

"Keep up with girls at upper secondary"? In my experience it's much like this: Girl, 17 reads 25 books during a set period of time while Boy, 17 only reads four. Why? Because Boy, 17's books were by Tacitus, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and Dostoyevsky, which, however, does not show up in statistics.

xf-108, Göteborg, Sweden

This is a wonderful opportunity for School Librarians everywhere to complement their collections, so long as we are given the choice of which books come to our Schools, it would be a tremendous waste of money if we were to recive duplicate copies of books we already have in stock.

Kathryn Wells, Wallingford, Oxfordshire

Enders Game should, without a doubt, be on this list.

Strobel, Dallas,

A minor point I know but I wonder why Mr Johnson thinks that the lack of a father in his home, rather than a lack of books, was a major factor in him not reading.
Why do people feel the need to mention the same old stereotypes i.e. "black" "single parent" completely out of context.
I was raised in a single parent family and was constantly surronded by and encouraged to read books.The fact Mr Johnson didn't have any books in his house was probably because his mother didn't like reading and not, as he seems to suggest, because his father wasn't there.

Tom, Sheffield, England

how do i claim my free 20 books for our school for boys to read.

debbie wilkinson, salford, england