In our culture, boys are raised to achieve, to hide feelings of uncertainty and fear, to compete rather than cooperate.
Boys also trail girls in reading and a love of books.
What parents, grandparents, teachers, and librarians need is a tool that will guide them to the books that will inspire boys of all different personalities and keep them coming back for more. Now Kathleen Odean, a former member of the esteemed Caldecott and Newbery Award committees and author of the groundbreaking bestseller Great Books for Girls , has compiled and annotated a unique and invaluable collection of more than six hundred bookspicture books, novels, mysteries, biographies, folktales, sports books, and morethat will fascinate and educate boys from toddlers to age fourteen. In this outstanding volume, Odean has assembled books for boys that offer a wide range of role models, that spark an interest in even the most reluctant readers, and that provide strong, positive portrayals of girls and women. These stories feature characters who have deep friendships with other boys, who are caring, and who have the respect of their peers, as well as those who rebel against peer pressure and go their own way. More than just a pastime, literature is the key to the unexplored.