Boys and reading

[Seedling01]

Hello,

I wanted to ask advice about boys and reading. I read to my 6 and 8-year-old boys regularly but cannot encourage them to read by themselves.
Does anyone have any tips to encourage them to read besides forcing them to pick up a book, which I fear will be counterproductive?

Thank you.

S

Maybe try comics rather than books.

DS2 (8) gets the Phoenix comic delivered. He loves it. You can get 4 issues for £1 to try it out.

One of mine was not bothered with fiction at all. He enjoyed some history books, loved getting Guinness Book of Records for Christmas at about 8 years old and generally later on only read non fiction. Until he read Lord of the Rings and then as a teen he did read the Harry Potter books!

I kept on reading fiction to them.

DS2 also loves ‘fact books’* about Star Wars and Pokemon and the like. He can sit for hours reading them.

He also really likes legend of Zelda manga.

• clearly they’re not actually non-fiction, since all the information inside is made up. He calls them ‘fact books’.

My 6yo DS loves reading things like “Lego superhero character guide” or fact books about dinosaurs
He also reads a lot of horrid Henry books, particularly the joke books - I hear him sniggering in bed when he’s supposed to be asleep, quite cute really!

What do they like? Books on their favourite topic are a good start. DS1 (8) likes graphic novels.
Both boys are allowed to put on the lights half an hour before they need to get up for school, and can read in this time. This was attractive too!

Thank you.
Some great ideas.
I will try with comics and graphic novels and a few bookmarks by Bookbeasts.
Think books might be a step too far for my two.

Thanks again

S

Cartoons. Garfield, Asterix, Darth Vader's Little Princess.
Also books with snippets you can dip into - star wars/lego/animal encyclopaedias, Horrible Histories/Science, and joke books.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid series were the turnaround books for DS (7) beginning to enjoy independent reading

Yes, finding books that appealed to DS's sense of humour helped enormously. Horrid Henry, Wimpy Kid, Horrible Histories, comics like The Beano, that sort of thing.

Choose your own adventure books worked brilliantly for us. They also enjoyed factual books about dinosaurs, sharks and volcanoes.

My boys started enjoying reading fiction when they could start reading more adventurous and scary books at 9+

Another one for joke books - worked brilliantly for us.

Once you’ve got them reading something and want to encourage more traditional type books, the Tom gates books are a good bet. They’re absolutely full of pictures and primary school children find them hilarious.

Do get the Phoenix though. I guarantee they’ll love bunny vs monkey, which is in it every week.

Astrosaurs - come with collectors cards
Cows In Action - look for the ones that come with a CD so they can read along
Dinosaur Cove was the first series that hooked DS.

My kids loved Astrosaurs. I started off reading them out loud and I liked them too!

One strategy can always be to read something TO them (and notice if they seem to be really enganged) but then stop at a cliffhanger / stop half way through, leaving them to finish it themselves if they want to find out what happens.

I did find these bookmarks online:
www.notonthehighstreet.com/bookbeasts

Think they would be ideal for younger children and partys.