Children do not read: it is true

I grew up reading sports stories and playing hockey. So what better topic for my first foray into the enlightened gender of children? "Good luck selling it," an editor told me when I showed him the manuscript. "Children do not read."

The children do not read? That was the first time I heard about it, and I have a five-year-old son. I began to investigate the subject and, indeed, I discovered that I was absolutely right. Once the children reach eight or nine years, they stop reading.

Whole forests have been slaughtered in a bewildering variety of reports on the subject. Educators tell us that children leave art courses as soon as they can. When assessing elementary school children, girls consistently outperform boys in reading and writing tests by a wide margin. This is consistent with international results: the same finding was reached in a recent study of 36 countries. Business leaders are beginning to realize, complaining that recent college graduates often lack basic literacy skills. About 50 percent of all high school children are considered non-readers!

These same studies make it clear, if not yet, that reading is an essential life skill. In a 2004 Canadian government report, the reading is described as "the search for a deeper meaning" that allows children to "refine, expand and reflect on their thinking" and "will result in high levels of learning." Children who read often get better grades in school and are less anxious about school work. And perhaps most significant of all, children who read become those who read.

Most literacy experts have focused on one culprit: technology. There is too much television, MSN, computers, video games, Internet, Game Boy and iPod. These mediums are winning the battle for the hearts, eyes and ears of our boys. The solution is equally clear: books that seem as meaningful and interesting as those other media should be presented to children.

We understand the problem. We have identified the culprit. We have a solution. So why haven't we reversed the trend? To put it bluntly, why reading is something girls do?

Before writing my novel, I made some trips to bookstores to see the competition. At first, I was very encouraged: there was no competition. Virtually all the books were for girls. The depth and scope of these girl-oriented novels was impressive, and as the father of a 10-year-old girl, I was pleased. The few selections aimed at children were non-fiction sports books, be it biographical accounts of athletes or a catalog of statistics. Little marvels do not read: there is nothing they can read.

A vicious circle needs to be broken. Boys don't read, so publishers don't publish books for them, and writers write for girls. Children remain unread because there is nothing of interest to them, which only encourages publishers and writers to avoid that market.

I want my son to read. I want her to be like my daughter, who will ignore several calls to dinner to finish a chapter, or secretly turn on her nightlight to finish a book. I have a small cache of classics for him. But after going through Tom Sawyer, what will he read?

More specifically, will it read something, or will it simply turn on the computer?

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