Last week I blogged about the Riveting Reads Plus: Boys into Books 5-11 list, from the British School Library Association. Have you had a chance to read this publication's excellent and full introduction? You haven't? Check it out, its chock full of great ideas about getting boys reading. Or, for you very busy people, here's the Create Readers Digest version…

The introduction, as well as the booklist, is by Chris Brown, editor of the review section of The School Librarian (a British journal).

Boys like to read:

• fiction that is very direct (lots of action, humour and larger than life characters)
• fiction linked with high profile TV series or movies
• books related to favourite topics, activities or sports
• bright, user-friendly, well-illustrated non-fiction
• print in many forms - magazines, web sources, collectors cards, etc
• comic-strip style and manga
• poetry with pace, rhythm, rhyme, and often humour
• series fiction
• variety:

  Boy readers need jokes, anecdotes, comics, awfully corny juvenile funnies, all-action thrills and more demanding novels alongside each other and intertwined to enrich the whole of their reading experiences.

Chris Brown also discusses the important role that libraries play in encouraging boys to read.