School Gate blog: the books which boys should read...

A series of storybooks for primary schools, using digital pictures and action-packed storylines, has been created to encourage boys to read.

Parents and teachers have become increasingly concerned at boys’ lack of interest in reading, and the ir lack of motivation at school. Recent research suggests that 21 per cent of nine-year-old boys are not interested in books, compared with 13 per cent of girls. When asked, 46 per cent of boys, but little more than a quarter of girls, said that they only read if they had to do so.

At the age of 7, boys lag behind girls in reading performance by eight percentage points (with 80 per cent, compared with 88 per cent of girls, reaching the target for their age.) At age 11, the gap is six points. Oxford University Press, publisher of the Oxford Reading Tree Magic Key series, featuring Chip, Kipper and their dog Floppy and used in most primary schools, has created a “reading tree” specifically for boys. A reading tree is a series of books of increasing difficulty, with the same cast of characters.

The new series, Project X, features three boys, Max, Ant and Tiger, and a girl, Cat, who is something of a tomboy. The four friends are pitched against Dr Evil, a wicked scientist who wants to shrink the world.

Sophie Quarterman, of the Oxford University Press, said the books had very fast-moving plots, plenty of computer-generated images and stories involving teamwork: this has been shown to appeal most to boys.

“All the research shows us that girls read because they are told to and will read anything put in front of them. But boys need to be given a reason to read. They need to feel they will get something out of it,” she said.

As boys are frequently attracted to non-fiction, each group of books in the Project X series is accompanied by a non-fiction book full of interesting facts and diagrams. One, on ants, suggests that if you weighed all the ants in the world they would weigh about as much as all the human beings in the world. Another explains all about pirate ships and includes a recipe for ships’ biscuits.

“The teaching notes contain lots of activities, such as things for boys to make and do with their hands,” Ms Quarterman said.

Gary Wilson, an independent consultant and author of Breaking Through the Barriers to Boys’ Achievement, said: “Through my work with thousands of boys in high schools

I would say that less than 20 per cent of boys read for pleasure. The most common reasons they cite for not reading include peer pressure — ‘it’s not cool to read; nobody wants to look like a boff’ — and that ‘there are more important things to do than read’.”

Mr Wilson, who has endorsed the Project X books, said that many boys were only ever read to by their mothers or by female teachers and may never see a man reading anything other than an instruction manual or a newspaper. It was wrong to assume, however, that the way to encourage boys to read was through non-fiction and “fact bites”.

“Reading fiction helps to counter what is a vital flaw in many boys’ learning process — their ability to reflect,” he said.

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