It’s perhaps a stretch to title this as about kids birthday gifts, but perhaps it will incent some of you to actually give books to boys as birthday presents. Just make sure it’s the right kind of book.
Following on Nick Kristof’s recent OpEd article about the gender gap in reading, this conversation continued on the NYTimes parenting blog, and it should be mandatory reading for all parents of boys. One of the things that hit me over the head was this, and I quote:
As Kristof’s article pointed out, the world has become more verbal, but boys haven’t. And in an age of texting, e-mailing, blogging and IM’ing, that’s a terrible disadvantage for our boys.
You can see from my graphic on this post that there are books out there, although perhaps way too few, that can appeal to boys. Sport books like this Soccer Book, are a natural. Google “books for boys” and you’ll find a whole host of suggestions. And don’t forget to check out google’s suggestions for related searches at the bottom of the search results page for more possiblities. Amazon, too, will give you suggestions if you search for ‘books for boys’.
[DISCLOSURE: If you purchase a book through the link on this page, I make a commission from Amazon. Seems reasonable to me…..]
And if you’ve got titles that your son(s) have liked, post them in our comments here so they can be shared. Boys literacy is obviously enough of a problem that all good ideas should be welcome by parents.
Don‘t be afraid to give books as birthday presents, especially if you’ve got one that your own son has really liked. There will be no shortage of the more standard boy’s toys at any birthday party, and your literary gift might even be a welcome change!
We strive to find kids birthday gifts that have some redeeming value, like literacy. You can see all our birthday party gift ideas on our website.
