Jon Scieszka's Why Johnny Won T Read

792 Words4 Pages
The generalized statement “Girls read; boys don’t,” is brought up in “Why Johnny Won’t Read” (408). The popular culture and the media promote the stereotype that boys do not read. While boys’ scores in reading tests are lower than girls’, indication boys read less, in reality boys do read. In fact, boys read more of informational texts and graphic novels while girls are into fiction. Therefore, the stereotype that boys do not read is invalid. The media promotes the gender stereotype that boys do not read through movies and popular culture like gender identities. Some movies show that a boy who likes to read is a geek which can be looked upon as substandard. Movies, such as Back to the Future, feature a character, George McFly, getting beaten…show more content…
Even though boys are interested in other readings materials than fiction, nonfiction and magazines count as reading. Jon Scieszka brings up the point that many boys may not consider nonfiction and informative texts as reading when he says that people should “let boys know that nonfiction reading is reading. Magazines, newspapers, websites, biographies, science books, comic books, graphic novels are all reading material” (McFann). Eighteen boys were asked what type of reading they would prefer for their next assignment for research purposes (What We Want). The results of the research is as followed: 33.3% chose comics, manga, and anime, 33.3% chose fantasy books like Harry Potter and The Magic Treehouse series, 22% chose nonfiction/informational books, 5.56% chose a joke book, and 5.56% -or one student- chose a fictional book (What We Want). From my personal experience, there are no boys I know who do not read. My one male friend does not like to read novels, but is found reading engineering articles offline frequently. In my family, the boys out read the girls by a landslide. My father makes sure he reads every day and my two brothers like to read anything they can get their hands on, but my sister has not picked up a

    More about Jon Scieszka's Why Johnny Won T Read

      Open Document