If you're the parent of a teenage boy, or you want to write for this book-adverse group, you must read Robert Lipsythe's essay in the New York Times Book Review, "Boys and Reading: Is There Any Hope?" Finally, someone in the know (Lipsythe himself is one of a handful of authors who has routinely been a male favorite) gets to the heart of why so many teen boys fall into the "reluctant reader" category. And it has nothing to do with their reading skills.
Read it, pass it on to the parent of a teen boy, and then go write something for these kids.
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I read this article about 3 days after I was told by a group of literary agents YA male point of view doesn't sell. Shame one of my WIPs has two teen age boys for MCs. May query a few agents when it's ready just to see if I get any feedback for it, but it will most likely be self published, if ever at all.
Well, they are always saying that kids (especially boys) don't read but, honestly, at least in my country that is more a way of speaking that a general truth. The fact is that here in Spain, boys DO read and who don't really read are their parents. Kids have to in school, so they'll be reading till they finish their last year at high school. On the contrary, adults don't have to, so they simply choose not to do it… and then we have our to-set-a-good-example old friend. If they don't see people reading around when they are at home, boys will never start doing it by themselves.
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