More specifically:
- Adventure books for high school boys. I can't tell you how many times I have heard boys ask for books like the last book they liked, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. There are adventure book out there but most are written at and geared toward the middle grade boy.
- Sports books for high school boys. They don't have to have a romantic aspect to them either, or an emphasis on steroids. How about a sports book where a kid works hard and makes the team and learns about himself in the process.
- More teen mysteries where the main characters are boys. It is such an odd thing. Girls will enjoy books where the main character is either sex, but boys seem to only want to read books with male protagonists. So we need more of those type of books.
- More nonfiction written for high school researchers. It is my observation that publishers of nonfiction either gear their books toward middle grade researchers or adults, skipping over high school readers. Now don't get me wrong, high schoolers are happy to use middle level books for their research so they don't have to work very hard to find the information. But we need to encourage students to read at or a little above their grade level, not below, particularly in this day and age of Core Standards.
- More humorous books with male lead characters. I can't emphasize enough how important this request is. Boys love humorous books best and there just aren't enough of them to go around.
- More books about Greek and Roman mythology. Boys love Rick Riordan books. Once they are done with his series they want to read something similar. Just wish these books were written at a higher level.
- Books set in Pacific Islands. We have a lot of students whose heritage is the Pacific Islands (especially Hawaii, Samoa, and Philippines.) It is difficult to find books in these settings where the main characters are high schoolers.
- Books about young soldiers. There are many of these books being published right now, but keep them coming. Boys want to read about the horrors of war and the heroic acts of young soldiers. These books are very popular in the library especially since we have a strong JROTC program at our school.
Not ten this week but if the publishers would get busy on my list, I'd be one happy librarian.
Ooh, I'd love to see more books set in the Pacific Islands! That would be such a cool setting and could offer a lot of fun cultural aspects. :)
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Alice @ Alice in Readerland
You've got some really thoughtful choices this week! I hope you get to see some of these ideas published! :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm with you completely! I especially agree with your wish for more adventure books for high school boys and more nonfiction for high school researchers. To that, I'd add my wish for more adventure for early readers and more nonfiction for early researchers.
ReplyDeleteI made a book-ish wishlist of book-ish things I wish I had. Hope you'll stop by!
The high school male reader -- one of my biggest challenges. Good ideas! Hope someone listens, and if you find any great books for these readers, please let me know!
ReplyDeleteReally interesting list! Also fascinating info that girls like male or female protagonists whereas boys like boys. I hadn't really thought about that - probably because I'm a girl and I'll read pretty much anything good!
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