How can we interest boys in reading when the majority of YA bestsellers are targeted to girls, who are more into books about “mean girls, gossip girls, frenemies and vampires”?
Sports journalist Robert Lipsyte, whose most recent books include a memoir, An Accidental Sportswriter, and YA novel, Center Field, has an essay in The New York Times on boys, the type of books they might be interested in, and how to get them to read.
“To me and I think to many prospective readers, today’s books for boys — supernatural space-and-sword epics that read like video game manuals and sports novels with preachy moral messages — often seem like cynical appeals to the lowest common denominator. Boys prefer video games and ESPN to book versions of them. These knockoffs also lack the tough, edgy story lines that allow boys a private place to reflect on the inner fears of failure and humiliation they try so hard to brush over. Editors who ask writers of books for boys to include girl characters — for commercial reasons — further blunt the edges.”
Take note, YA writers.
