Helping to Make Boys “Readers”

Several years ago, I read an interesting article from the New York Times about helping boys to become “readers” (Boys and Reading: Is there any Hope? ).

There is no question that there has been a massive output of Young Adult fiction in the last 10 years. In fact, the genre of Young Adult fiction surpasses the interest in Adult fiction today.

So, what do we as teachers do to help support and encourage these boys who feel reading is a “girl thing”? We need a list of books that appeal to boys to pique their interest. Here are some books and authors that I recommend to help interest and engage boys in middle and high school.

Please feel free to make your own recommendations – especially for nonfiction, as my personal list is definitely lacking! I would love to have a huge list of fiction and nonfiction to share with other teachers struggling with the same problem.

Here is my list (in no particular order)

Here are some popular "boy book" authors as well:

• Alan Gratz
• Jason Reynolds
• James Patterson
• Gordan Korman
• Jerry Kraft
• Mike Lupica

What would you add to these lists?