bookgazing (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bookgazing) wrote2010-09-23 02:30 am
bookgazing) wrote2010-09-23 02:30 am
Boy in a Box
Edited for clarity hopefully: This post is intended to purge a general gathering of gah feeling that has been gathering over the last few days and was inspired both by The Booksmuggler’s excellent recent review of 'Gentlemen' (want) and angered tweets by April from Good Books and Good Wine. What follows is my attempt to dispute what I’m calling ‘The Boy Problem II’ ‘The Boy Problem I’ is people’s concern over boys not reading – very possibly a valid concern – I do not know, I have no data on this problem. The idea behind ‘The Boy Problem II’ is that there are few books being written out there and being highlighted on blogs, that boys will find interesting. I will address this concern by briefly looking at the numbers and handing out book recommendations.
First I’m going to have tell you which kind of people who ask for 'books for boys' I'm talking to and to do that I'm going to have to make assumptions. Please know I am aware that there are groups who want boys to be interested in books who do not fit with these assumptions and want all kinds of books that interest all kinds of boys. I think that's kind of an important distinction - some people want boys to be interested in books and find books they're interested in, books that may also be of interest to girls whereas some people want more books created for the fictional, easy to classify boys who fit into a very carefully measured box they've create in their heads. The people I'm talking about people throughout this whole post are people like this woman:
I assume that when people, like the one above, talk about ‘The Boy Problem II’ they classify books that boys will find interesting as books with male protagonists (links to related post about books boys might enjoy with female main characters – sorry I know that it’s totally valid for boys to want to read books with male characters as well but I couldn’t resist), probably male protagonists who are themselves interested in subjects that are traditionally thought of as male spheres of interest.
I assume that when people, like the one above, talk about the lack of books boys will be interested in, they are not excluding books written by female authors, as long as they contain male main characters. I very much hope I am not wrong in making this assumption, but I worry that I am.
I assume that when people, like the one above, talk about the lack of books boys will be interested in they are referring to straight, cisgendered boys and so would not accept books featuring gay or transgender protagonists as evidence of books being published for boys (which is of course a rubbish exclusionary view fraught with implications that make me go *headdesk*. That first assumption I had to make i’nt exactly sunshine and rainbows either. I am also rather obviously ignoring the problems of labelling a book, ‘for boys’ in this post – these are issues for later posts as they might confuse my point here).
I assume that people, like the one above, who talk about the lack of books published that boys will be interested in are only interested in young adult novels.
Let me begin by showing you just five books that have been published within the last five years, that I have read and blogged about and that seem to fit with all of those above assumptions. I will also attempt to briefly sketch some of the subjects these books touch on that are traditionally considered subjects of interest to boys:
‘The Last Exit to Normal’ by Micheal Harmon - getting the girl, skateboarding, pranks
‘Dooley Takes the Fall’ by Patricia McCormick - investigation, getting into trouble, murder
‘Leviathan’ by Scott Westerfeld - alternate history/sci-fi, physical battles, machines
‘Little Brother’ by Cory Doctrow - gaming, politics, adventure
‘Slam’ by Nick Hornby - sport, sex, sci-fi/time travel
‘Leviathan’ will eventually be part of a trilogy. ‘Dooley Takes the Fall’ is part of a series. Two of those books ( ‘The Last Exit to Normal’ and ‘Dooley Takes the Fall’) have purely contemporary settings ( it seems to be a complaint that boys may be prominent in sci-fi narratives, but they’re nowhere to be seen in contemporary young adult fiction) and another two could be classified as books with a contemporary setting, although they may at times involve none real life things like time travel (‘Slam’ and ‘Little Brother’).
Now I’m going to make a list of five series that fit the above criteria. Some I’ve read, some I haven’t, but that really isn’t the issue, the issue is that these YA series (series – involving multiple books – that boys will like – multiple. books) with male protagonists do in fact exist:
‘Adventure’ series by Willard Price
‘Artemis Fowl’ series by Eoin Colfer
‘Young Bond’ series by Charlie Higson
‘Percy Jackson’ series by Rick Riordan
‘Scott Pilgrim’ series by Bryan Lee O’Halley
There are 37 books currently in those 5 series alone.
And for a bonus finish, how about some novels with male main characters that are considered classics, but are now sometimes called young adult classics:
‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ by Mark Twain
‘Catcher in the Rye’ by J D Salinger
‘Around the World in 80 Days’ by Jules Verne
‘Treasure Island’ by Robert Louis Stevenson
‘Kidnapped’ by Robert Louis Stevenson
Now I will point out just five of the many blogs around the web run by female bloggers that regularly highlight older and recently published books that fit the criteria I stated above. There seems to be some concern that with so many female book bloggers, boys aren’t being told about young adult books they might enjoy because female book bloggers only talk about books girls might like (oh I think I made a hole in the desk with the head banging required to stop myself diverting off an dissecting that statement). May I suggest:
GuysLitWire – A site dedicated to reviewing young adult books boys might be interested in. Their reviews range through contemporary, historical, sci-fi, and sometimes they also talk about non-fiction and graphic novels. Founded by a mixture of male and female bloggers.
Reading in Color – Ari runs a regular feature called Male Monday, and includes a balance of contemporary and historical young adult novels.
The Happy Nappy Bookseller – Doret often talks about books featuring boys playing sports and other young adult novels featuring male protagonists.
Chasing Ray – Coleen is always highlighting young adult books with male protagonists, as well as non-fiction boys might be interested in, either at her personal blog, or in her Bookslut column.
Voracious YAppetite – Check her upcoming YA releases, which often feature books with male protagonists.
And may I note the massive irony of any intersection between argument that run 'boys don't want to read about girls' and 'female bloggers should be writing about books boys will like'. It is kind of huge.
This is not intended to be a complete or exhaustive list of all the young adult novels out there with male main characters. If it was, it would be a poor show. If I could list all the titles available with male main characters in one blog post we would know there was a problem. Instead it is an illustration of what is out there: big name series with huge publicity campaigns behind them, fantasy, sci-fi, a decent selection of contemporary titles, classics for teenagers. I could name a lot more books that I haven’t read yet that I know feature male main characters –A LOT. I have excluded books which offer a dual narrative perspective, alternating between active male main characters and active female main characters to avoid clouding the male main character criteria above (and yes ‘Leviathan’ is in there – but Deryn is disguised as a boy for the entire book) even though I think there are a lot of cool books like that which boys would enjoy (the Tales of the Otori series by Lian Hearn would be my first recommendation).
The reason why boys may not be reading YA novels is not because we don’t have enough books ‘for boys’. Why they may not be reading these kind of books is an issue that goes wehaaaaahey outside my own sphere of expertise as I am not a mother, an educator, a psychologist, or in any way involved in the publishing industry, but I can absolutely say it’s not because there aren’t enough YA novels featuring male main characters, doing traditionally boyish things, for boys to read. It is also not because female bloggers are keeping the men down by piling girl books on their backs. The amount of books available with male main characters is NOT comparable with the lack of young adult novels with for example, lesbian characters. Neither is the visibility of all books with male main characters comparable to the low visibility of sub sections within the male main character bracket. Books with Asian male main characters, for example, have much lower visibility on blogs and in other media sources than books with white, male main characters. And books with white male main characters have higher media visibility than books with say, Asian female main characters.
So when I hear people saying that ‘there are not enough books for boys’ I curl my lip and I say pffff (unless I have had a few drinks, then I say other words). There are lots of books out there for the traditional boy who wants to read about traditionally male characters doing things that have traditionally been called ‘male things’.
Finally just five of the many books ‘for boys’ that this woman is excited about:
‘Gentlemen’ by Michael Northrop (contemporary)
‘The Replacement’ by Brenna Yovanoff (fantasy) IT CAME YESTERDAY! I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS BOOK I DECIDED TO USE CAPITALS.
‘Efrain’s Secret’- Sofia Quintero (contemporary)
‘Codetalker’ – Joseph Bruchac (historical)
‘Ship Breaker’ – Paolo Bacigalupi (sci-fi)
I know some people who read here have sons at home and I would be very interested to know what your sons like to read (novels, non-fiction, comic books...) if they do like reading. Maybe I would like something they like to read.
If you're a teenager who reads (female or male) please let me know your thoughts on the gender split of young adult books you've encountered.
Next time on ranting about reading and gender: Sanitised boy characters vs sanitised girl characters – the ‘where are the female characters who talk about their periods in detail - that conversation will come up among my female friends at least once a year’ rant.
But before that you should read these excellent posts on books 'for boys':
Renay talks about how the call for books for boys often seems to imply that books about girls are not of interest to boys and explains why she thinks socialisation has caused boys to react negatively to books where girls are active characters.
Maureen Johnson talks about how easy it is for women to find themselves socially conditioned to read exclusively books by male authors, or books with male main characters.
Coleen of Chasing Ray takes a different stance on the issue at GuysLitWire and says that finding books for boys doesn't have to be a gender war.
While I agree that it doesn't have to be and it shouldn't be, I think making a request that boys have books with male characters is inevitably used by some people to say things like 'girls are emasculating our boys' or 'girls control the book world, oh no how awful we must fix this right now and make sure boys once again control the book world' or 'active girl characters just aren't of interest to boys' (not what the group at GuysLitWire is doing, I love them and I do not intend to include them in the people I am reacting against in this post). I certainly feel and react to that tone (sometimes very much more than a tone) in some of the posts I see on the subject. That makes it hard for me to align myself with any of the sensible search for a way to increase the amount boys read because I feel that by doing so I am enabling the crazy fringes of the sensible conversation to hurt women with sexism. Even that bit about 'I know it is valid...' that I posted above make me feel kind of uncomfortable.
First I’m going to have tell you which kind of people who ask for 'books for boys' I'm talking to and to do that I'm going to have to make assumptions. Please know I am aware that there are groups who want boys to be interested in books who do not fit with these assumptions and want all kinds of books that interest all kinds of boys. I think that's kind of an important distinction - some people want boys to be interested in books and find books they're interested in, books that may also be of interest to girls whereas some people want more books created for the fictional, easy to classify boys who fit into a very carefully measured box they've create in their heads. The people I'm talking about people throughout this whole post are people like this woman:
I assume that when people, like the one above, talk about ‘The Boy Problem II’ they classify books that boys will find interesting as books with male protagonists (links to related post about books boys might enjoy with female main characters – sorry I know that it’s totally valid for boys to want to read books with male characters as well but I couldn’t resist), probably male protagonists who are themselves interested in subjects that are traditionally thought of as male spheres of interest.
I assume that when people, like the one above, talk about the lack of books boys will be interested in, they are not excluding books written by female authors, as long as they contain male main characters. I very much hope I am not wrong in making this assumption, but I worry that I am.
I assume that when people, like the one above, talk about the lack of books boys will be interested in they are referring to straight, cisgendered boys and so would not accept books featuring gay or transgender protagonists as evidence of books being published for boys (which is of course a rubbish exclusionary view fraught with implications that make me go *headdesk*. That first assumption I had to make i’nt exactly sunshine and rainbows either. I am also rather obviously ignoring the problems of labelling a book, ‘for boys’ in this post – these are issues for later posts as they might confuse my point here).
I assume that people, like the one above, who talk about the lack of books published that boys will be interested in are only interested in young adult novels.
Let me begin by showing you just five books that have been published within the last five years, that I have read and blogged about and that seem to fit with all of those above assumptions. I will also attempt to briefly sketch some of the subjects these books touch on that are traditionally considered subjects of interest to boys:
‘The Last Exit to Normal’ by Micheal Harmon - getting the girl, skateboarding, pranks
‘Dooley Takes the Fall’ by Patricia McCormick - investigation, getting into trouble, murder
‘Leviathan’ by Scott Westerfeld - alternate history/sci-fi, physical battles, machines
‘Little Brother’ by Cory Doctrow - gaming, politics, adventure
‘Slam’ by Nick Hornby - sport, sex, sci-fi/time travel
‘Leviathan’ will eventually be part of a trilogy. ‘Dooley Takes the Fall’ is part of a series. Two of those books ( ‘The Last Exit to Normal’ and ‘Dooley Takes the Fall’) have purely contemporary settings ( it seems to be a complaint that boys may be prominent in sci-fi narratives, but they’re nowhere to be seen in contemporary young adult fiction) and another two could be classified as books with a contemporary setting, although they may at times involve none real life things like time travel (‘Slam’ and ‘Little Brother’).
Now I’m going to make a list of five series that fit the above criteria. Some I’ve read, some I haven’t, but that really isn’t the issue, the issue is that these YA series (series – involving multiple books – that boys will like – multiple. books) with male protagonists do in fact exist:
‘Adventure’ series by Willard Price
‘Artemis Fowl’ series by Eoin Colfer
‘Young Bond’ series by Charlie Higson
‘Percy Jackson’ series by Rick Riordan
‘Scott Pilgrim’ series by Bryan Lee O’Halley
There are 37 books currently in those 5 series alone.
And for a bonus finish, how about some novels with male main characters that are considered classics, but are now sometimes called young adult classics:
‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ by Mark Twain
‘Catcher in the Rye’ by J D Salinger
‘Around the World in 80 Days’ by Jules Verne
‘Treasure Island’ by Robert Louis Stevenson
‘Kidnapped’ by Robert Louis Stevenson
Now I will point out just five of the many blogs around the web run by female bloggers that regularly highlight older and recently published books that fit the criteria I stated above. There seems to be some concern that with so many female book bloggers, boys aren’t being told about young adult books they might enjoy because female book bloggers only talk about books girls might like (oh I think I made a hole in the desk with the head banging required to stop myself diverting off an dissecting that statement). May I suggest:
GuysLitWire – A site dedicated to reviewing young adult books boys might be interested in. Their reviews range through contemporary, historical, sci-fi, and sometimes they also talk about non-fiction and graphic novels. Founded by a mixture of male and female bloggers.
Reading in Color – Ari runs a regular feature called Male Monday, and includes a balance of contemporary and historical young adult novels.
The Happy Nappy Bookseller – Doret often talks about books featuring boys playing sports and other young adult novels featuring male protagonists.
Chasing Ray – Coleen is always highlighting young adult books with male protagonists, as well as non-fiction boys might be interested in, either at her personal blog, or in her Bookslut column.
Voracious YAppetite – Check her upcoming YA releases, which often feature books with male protagonists.
And may I note the massive irony of any intersection between argument that run 'boys don't want to read about girls' and 'female bloggers should be writing about books boys will like'. It is kind of huge.
This is not intended to be a complete or exhaustive list of all the young adult novels out there with male main characters. If it was, it would be a poor show. If I could list all the titles available with male main characters in one blog post we would know there was a problem. Instead it is an illustration of what is out there: big name series with huge publicity campaigns behind them, fantasy, sci-fi, a decent selection of contemporary titles, classics for teenagers. I could name a lot more books that I haven’t read yet that I know feature male main characters –A LOT. I have excluded books which offer a dual narrative perspective, alternating between active male main characters and active female main characters to avoid clouding the male main character criteria above (and yes ‘Leviathan’ is in there – but Deryn is disguised as a boy for the entire book) even though I think there are a lot of cool books like that which boys would enjoy (the Tales of the Otori series by Lian Hearn would be my first recommendation).
The reason why boys may not be reading YA novels is not because we don’t have enough books ‘for boys’. Why they may not be reading these kind of books is an issue that goes wehaaaaahey outside my own sphere of expertise as I am not a mother, an educator, a psychologist, or in any way involved in the publishing industry, but I can absolutely say it’s not because there aren’t enough YA novels featuring male main characters, doing traditionally boyish things, for boys to read. It is also not because female bloggers are keeping the men down by piling girl books on their backs. The amount of books available with male main characters is NOT comparable with the lack of young adult novels with for example, lesbian characters. Neither is the visibility of all books with male main characters comparable to the low visibility of sub sections within the male main character bracket. Books with Asian male main characters, for example, have much lower visibility on blogs and in other media sources than books with white, male main characters. And books with white male main characters have higher media visibility than books with say, Asian female main characters.
So when I hear people saying that ‘there are not enough books for boys’ I curl my lip and I say pffff (unless I have had a few drinks, then I say other words). There are lots of books out there for the traditional boy who wants to read about traditionally male characters doing things that have traditionally been called ‘male things’.
Finally just five of the many books ‘for boys’ that this woman is excited about:
‘Gentlemen’ by Michael Northrop (contemporary)
‘The Replacement’ by Brenna Yovanoff (fantasy) IT CAME YESTERDAY! I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS BOOK I DECIDED TO USE CAPITALS.
‘Efrain’s Secret’- Sofia Quintero (contemporary)
‘Codetalker’ – Joseph Bruchac (historical)
‘Ship Breaker’ – Paolo Bacigalupi (sci-fi)
I know some people who read here have sons at home and I would be very interested to know what your sons like to read (novels, non-fiction, comic books...) if they do like reading. Maybe I would like something they like to read.
If you're a teenager who reads (female or male) please let me know your thoughts on the gender split of young adult books you've encountered.
Next time on ranting about reading and gender: Sanitised boy characters vs sanitised girl characters – the ‘where are the female characters who talk about their periods in detail - that conversation will come up among my female friends at least once a year’ rant.
But before that you should read these excellent posts on books 'for boys':
Renay talks about how the call for books for boys often seems to imply that books about girls are not of interest to boys and explains why she thinks socialisation has caused boys to react negatively to books where girls are active characters.
Maureen Johnson talks about how easy it is for women to find themselves socially conditioned to read exclusively books by male authors, or books with male main characters.
Coleen of Chasing Ray takes a different stance on the issue at GuysLitWire and says that finding books for boys doesn't have to be a gender war.
While I agree that it doesn't have to be and it shouldn't be, I think making a request that boys have books with male characters is inevitably used by some people to say things like 'girls are emasculating our boys' or 'girls control the book world, oh no how awful we must fix this right now and make sure boys once again control the book world' or 'active girl characters just aren't of interest to boys' (not what the group at GuysLitWire is doing, I love them and I do not intend to include them in the people I am reacting against in this post). I certainly feel and react to that tone (sometimes very much more than a tone) in some of the posts I see on the subject. That makes it hard for me to align myself with any of the sensible search for a way to increase the amount boys read because I feel that by doing so I am enabling the crazy fringes of the sensible conversation to hurt women with sexism. Even that bit about 'I know it is valid...' that I posted above make me feel kind of uncomfortable.