It seems as though many of the books we’ve purchased for Hallie over the years have little to no interest for Hunter. I get it. Most of them have female lead characters and even though he’d probably love the story he can’t get over the fact that there is a girl on the cover. Major turnoff.
So I’m on a mission to find books that Hunter will enjoy and start building a library that is suitable for our family of boys and soon to be readers. Here’s our 3rd grade summer wish list.
(Amazon aff. and links)
This is an actual question and not a snark or a judgement on your parenting. Does it bother you that he won’t read books with girls on the cover? Does the gender bias there strike you as an issue? Why is it a turn off for him to read a book with a female lead character?
That is a great question! Because our oldest is a girl, the majority of our home library we have created thus far has catered to her and her interests, which includes a plethora of strong female leads. Our son, has worked his way through many of these books without any problem or complaint. But like our daughter, we want to cater to his interests now and that will likely be a completely different set of books than his sister. And chances are, when our next son comes along, his interests will be different from his brother and his sister. Really, more than anything I’m trying to create an interest in reading and I’ve found that the types of books is important in doing so. Hallie had absolutely no interest in Harry Potter after reading the first book (it’s not my interest either!), but I’ve got a feeling a few of my boys are going to love it. If you have any great recommendations, I’ve love to hear them.
I found with my son that he liked non-fiction more than fiction.
Here’s some suggestions for both fiction & non-fiction that my son really loved:
Jean Fritz wrote many historical books with a fun kid spin such as “What’s the Big Idea, Ben Franklin?” and “Why don’t you get a Horse, Sam Adams?” and “Can’t you make them behave, King George?”
Henry and Mudge series by Cynthia Rylant – might be a little young
The Great Brain series
Encyclopedia Brown books
Indian in the Cupboard series
How to Eat Fried Worms – maybe you might want to read it first but we both loved it
Beverly Cleary books – Henry Huggins series or Ralph the Mouse series
Johnny Tremain
The Castle in the Attic series
So many good books and so little time!!
Happy Reading 🙂