"Guy Books"

For the YA Lit class that I am taking, I decided to focus on "guy books" after that was the way one of my students referred to most of the books that he read this year from our classroom library. Last year when I would book talk a lot of the books that I bought to read and then passed on to the library, many of the boys would grumble that they were mainly girl books. This year I made more of a conscious effort to buy more books for the boys; I still have a lot of catching up to do though. So, while I have plenty of books that are more appealing to girls in my to read pile, I thought the class would be a great chance to buy more books for boys. There are not any required texts other than YA books, so it was a nice excuse to justify placing a couple of Amazon orders, thinking about how much I typically spend on textbooks for other college courses!

This week I read Tyrell and Mexican Whiteboy to see if they would be a good fit for my incoming 8th grade boys. However, because of the mature themes mentioned in Tyrell, my initial gut instinct is that it would be better for high school students. Mexican Whiteboy also has a lot of mature content, but I am leaning toward including it. You can see more thoughts about Tyrell here and about Mexican Whiteboy here. I am thinking that a lot of the books I chose will be tough calls on whether or not they are a good fit for a middle school vs. high school classroom library because a lot of the boys are drawn to books with real life problem/issues themes. 

The two required books for the course were The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and American Born Chinese. Then we each needed to choose seven more books, with a few stipulations. They are all supposed to be award winners or on recommended lists. At least one had to be a "problem" novel and one had to be historical fiction. 

Here are my seven books, aside from the two already mentioned:

Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar

Deadline by Chris Crutcher

Copper Sun by Sharon Draper

Inexcusable by Chris Lynch

Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford

These are the other books that I bought on the same order with the boys in mind:

Crash Boom Love by Juan Felipe Herrera (The girls have been crazy about novels in verse this year, I want to get more novels in verse that will also appeal to boys)

Romiette and Julio by Sharon Draper

The First Part Last by Angela Johnson

Growing Up in Slavery: Stories of Young Slaves as Told By Themselves by Yuval Taylor (We are supposed to read a non-fiction piece on the same topic as our historical fiction pick.)

Fire from the Rock by Sharon Draper

Street Love by Walter Dean Myers

I also pulled a few other books from my TBR pile to make sure and read this summer. 

Boy Writers: Reclaiming Their Voices

Ralph Fletcher's Boy Writers: Reclaiming Their Voices had caught my eye for some time now. Recently I ordered a copy and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Aside from all of the writing advice/thoughts, I was thrilled that it talked about boys in general. Growing up in a family of all girls and being a mom of two girls, I can't say that I have a strong grasp on boys. Of course, I have observations from my years of teaching, but I don't think that makes up for the lack of having a brother or a son. Thus, the book got me thinking about myself as a teacher and if my classroom is an environment where boys can reach their full potential or if it more easily accomodates girls and their learning styles and preferences. It was pretty fascinating to me, and it sparked my interest to delve deeper. Eventually I would love to read other books that he mentions, such as Thomas Newkirk's Misreading Masculinity: Boys, Literacy, and Popular Culture. (I just saw the front cover for the first time when I was getting the link for the post - I absolutely love it!)

One of Fletcher's comments early on in the book was, "Let's create the kind of classroom where every boy who enters can say to himself: This is a place where I can write, a place where I can bring all of myself to my writing" (25). The book outlines just how teachers can be more mindful of creating this environment. I especially loved the What Can I Do In My Classroom feature at the end of each chapter to list out the main classroom implications from each individual chapter in a succinct manner.

Since technology and literacy is a current area of high interest for me, I also enjoyed reading Fletcher's remarks about texting. While some people do not see it as a valid means for developing literacy skills, he said, "But it's making these boys into better writers [...] I mean, you can't spend hours working on a skill without getting better at it." What a great reminder!

Aside from the book piquing my interest in the field of gender studies, I am also excited to read more of his books about writer's notebooks. I already have a copy of his Breathing In, Breathing Out on my to-read shelf. I can't wait to get a copy of his Pyrotechnics on the Page (expected to come out later this month) as well. I might just have a Ralph Fletcher mini-marathon reading this spring. He also helped me to recenter and reflect as I am creating and re-working my 3 year curriculum map. After reading a recent post from Two Writing teachers, I had already been noticing my flaw of not leaving enough room for student choice in genres, and reading this book hit that message home. This was an excellent book on so many different levels.