Jenny Nimmo has a great set of characters and adventures in the Children of the Red King series. As a lover of fanatasy, I’m an easy sell and this series has me searching out the next one to see where it goes. I find Charlie, the main character, likable and hopeful without being [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘boys’
September 16, 2009
10:The Big One-Oh – Dean Pitchford
This is a book aimed squarely at the 8-12 year old boy niche. Part gross and disgusting, part humour, part revenge of the loser; it hits the mark. Charley Maplewood is turning 10. Thanks to a inappropriately timed birthday greeting, he decides it really is time for him to have a birthday [...]
September 14, 2009
Raymond and Graham Rule the School by Mike Knudson and Steve Wilkinson
First a disclaimer, this is a book intended for boys, I am not a boy. I did not enjoy this book and I don’t think it should come close to your library. I think Mike and Steve missed the boat on this one. Raymond and Graham are entering grade four. They are looking forward to [...]
July 31, 2009
The Mealworm Diaries
Author: Anna Kerz Copyright Date: 2009
Jeremy and his mother have moved from rural Nova Scotia to Toronto. Jeremy has some major adjustments to make in life and in school. Funny and poignant, this story is a marvelous read. The text is relatively simple but not over simplified. Short chapters will appeal to struggling readers. Jeremy [...]
July 27, 2009
Juvie Three
Title: Juvie Three
Author: Gordon Korman Copyright Date: 2008
Another book by Gordon Korman, again it is great fun. Three boys from Juvenile Detention are moved into a group home with an unconventional group leader. No one thinks it will work and one of the boys is determined to find trouble. The relationships [...]
March 1, 2008
The Quest Continues
I’ve continued some of my background reading in the area of boys and literacy. I must admit it starts to sound like a broken record after awhile. Boys like reading for information. Boys develop their literacy skills later than girls. There are fewer male role models for reading behaviour. More boys consider themselves non-readers. Boys [...]
February 14, 2008
Planning, Plotting, Thinking
My division has this very cool professional development going on in which we choose a topic within a set agenda to research ourselves based on our own burning question. I think my question began as “Who are boys in the 21st Century and how do we meet their needs as literacy learners?” Grand intentions.
I’ve done [...]
February 14, 2008
Inspiring Reading
Inspiring, Motivating, Engaging…I am looking at what the research says about getting children hooked on reading. I read three short pieces, two articles and one book chapter. Each of them saying remarkably, or perhaps not, similar things. So what gives, what makes a child want to read?
1) a literate environment – [...]
February 14, 2008
Gender disadvantage?
I think it is pretty safe to say in the majority of my classrooms, girls have behaved more responsibly than boys have. They have completed more work and read more books. I have assumed these attributes would make them successful learners and participants in further learning experiences and have wondered how to [...]
January 27, 2008
“Not just boring stories”: Reconsidering the gender gap for boys
Donna Lester Taylor writes in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy Jan 2005 about the current gap seen between the achievement of boys and that of girls in the area of literacy. The brief synopsis of the current trends asks some of the key questions about how literacy is defined and whether or not [...]
