We Must Get Children Reading Again
Books by Max Elliot Anderson
I understand why many children don’t enjoy reading. I understand because I grew up hating to read. In my family of seven children, I was the only struggling, reluctant reader. The irony is that my father was the author of over 70 books during his lifetime and I never read any of them growing up.
I was interested in doing things; not just reading about them. Though I didn’t understand it back then, my problems with reading were many. I’m still easily distracted, so if there was noise around, I found it hard to concentrate. Imagine that – in a house with six other brothers and sisters, two parents, and a dog.
My dad also headed a Christian film production studio. This was a perfect place for a kid like me to hang around and watch. I was attracted to visual communication and not the printed page. That’s why my life’s work has involved film, video, and TV commercial production.
Then eleven years ago, I decided to research into why I hadn’t enjoyed reading. I went to bookstores and the library to look through hundreds of books written for children. Here’s what I found.
- Many books were printed on dull-looking, brownish paper.
- Most of the books were obviously written primarily to attract girls as readers.
- Books had large blocks of words, making it easy to get lost on a page.
- There were too many details, in my opinion, which boys don’t like.
- The same was true for lots of descriptions.
- Many books didn’t grab and hold my attention on the first page.
- Boys’ books tended to have dark or evil characters, plots, and settings.
I wanted books that were fast moving, exciting, with shorter paragraphs and sentences. If they could be funny, too, it would be even better. Then I set out to write the kinds of action-adventures & mysteries I would have enjoyed as a child and patterned them after the films I used to do. Kids tell me reading one of my books is like being in an exciting movie. Hummm…wonder how that happened?
The books are enjoyed by girls, too, as well as avid readers.
Children today have far more distractions than ever before. Most of these are electronic gadgets As a result, the previous generation produced more readers than the present. We have to change that, and fast, because our children’s success in life depends on it. After all, leaders are the readers other follow.
Excellent post, Max. I lived through one reluctant reader who is now married, and had another one at home until the last year or so. I believe half the battle is in finding books they want to read. Once my son discovered Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King he never stopped reading. For my daughter, it was The Hunger Games. She truly enjoys most dystopian novels thanks to that series.
Good stuff here, Max. You’re absolutely right about needing to get kids reading. Life is hard enough without having literacy problems. Any way we can help is so important. Thanks for a great post.
Thanks for this post, Max. I have two daughters; the oldest loved reading, the youngest disliked it. She now is a speech-language pathologist at an elementary school, uses books quite a lot when she teaches, and insists that her five-month-old son is read to every day! I do think reading to children is a key (as I just posted here last week). But with three grandsons now, books written with boys in mind sounds like a wonderful resource to me!
Interesting post. I know that as soon as my boys discovered books they wanted to read, they didn’t stop. My biggest problem now is stopping them reading!!! There needs to be more books out there that boys will enjoy – even some of the books on the shelves now may need a better cover to attract boys.
Thank you all for your comments about this important challenge. And Melissa, what a great problem – having to stop your boys from reading. Some parents have written to tell me they’ve found their children reading my books, with flashlights, after lights out. That’s always brought a smile to my face.
Amazon Author Page http://www.amazon.com/Max-Elliot-Anderson/e/B002BLP3EE