A Conversation with Children's Bookstore Owner Sally Oddi

Sally Oddi owns Cover to Cover, a children's bookstore in Columbus. For our conversation, Sally had gathered a number of young adult books that were piled in stacks of two and three across a table in a small room in the bookstore. (Click here to see a list of those books and also for a list of books she presented at a meeting in the fall of 2005.)

So how do we interest boys in books and turn them into readers?

Opportunity and choice are most important. Time to read within the school day and great books to choose from are not frills―they are essentials. It's vital to provide choice for kids who are not good readers or who can't read, even though this sometimes goes against current practices. Don't tell them they can only read certain books―only the ones in the blue basket or with a red dot. There needs to be a range.

Another tactic is to read aloud. Reading aloud is a well-proven way to engage students' interests in books. Unfortunately, rarely do middle school and high school teachers today have the luxury of time to do this. Yet if you can carve out that time, you can provide a bridge to reading―to engage students in a topic, a new author, a new genre. For students who are good readers, this isn't a big problem. For students who are struggling or reluctant, not reading aloud cuts down the opportunities that exposure to new topics, authors, and genres provides.

And there are author visits, though author visits to middle schools are nearly nonexistent now. Yet those experiences can live with students forever if done right. To get ready for the visits, students will read before the author comes, and once the students see the author, they are eager to read the author's other books and to keep up with new ones. There is a feeling of personal involvement and a connection with a real person.

Frequently the boys who come into my store ask for an adventure book. They mean they want action! (The girls seem to gravitate more to books that are filled with details and psychological introspection, but again there are gradations within both genders). The books that are likely to captivate boys are often edgy and fast-paced and have a strong plot. This is true whether the books are fantasy, historical fiction, or modern-day stories.

And some of the better books for boys can be used in language arts and other subject areas. Black and White, by Paul Volponi, is one. This story is about two outstanding high school basketball players, one black and one white, who seem headed for great success. The book deals with bad decision making, peer influence, the justice system, racism, parental denial―the stuff of real life. The story will be gripping to just about any boy and provides a wealth of ideas to examine not only in language arts but in social studies class too.

Boys like humor and irreverence. This explains the popularity of the Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey, Hoot and Flush by Carl Hiaasen, and the Johnny Maxwell trilogy by Terry Pratchett.

A major reason that Jon Scieszka's Time Warp Trio series is popular is because it puts into words ideas―irreverent ones―that the readers are often thinking. Plus the books are also funny.

Humor, a staple of many books for younger students, is hard to find in books aimed at middle and high schoolers. Both Hoot and Flush by Carl Hiaasen offer a good plot and high adventure and are funny too. Hoot offers the extra-added bonus of being a mystery. In Flush, a brother and sister save their father from spending years in prison because he had taken illegal action to stop a polluter―lots of action.

This brings up another point―one that is sometimes a point of contention. Some parents complain about the lack of stable parents, or any parents, in a number of young adult books. Certainly, this is true although it is not a new phenomenon. In young adult fiction, in an effort to get the main characters―young boys and young girls―front and center, the authors often do away with the parents. The parents might be dead, or ill, or unfit, or absent for some reason or another, and the teen protagonist is being raised by a grandparent or other person. There are numerous engaging books where this occurs.

I understand that parents and teachers may be afraid of what boys read, but limiting the choices will simply turn some boys away from reading. Some boys want to read about real things, and nothing else. And parents have to realize that children are aware of their weaknesses as well as their strengths, so when parents are not portrayed as being perfect people, that is a realistic portrayal. The authors are merely illuminating the human frailty of parents and kids. There are books in which both parents figure prominently and in a positive way in the story. Offhand I can think of Al Capone Does My Shirts (by Gennifer Chaldenko) and Autobiography of My Dead Brother (by Walter Dean Myers).

What about books that are edgy or that have controversial themes?

When they deal with something that has relevance to the real world, when they deal with problems that students must face or that they hear about, they have great appeal for students, and these books can play a vital part in students' thinking.

Books in the edgy category? Chris Crutcher's books (examples include Whale Talk, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, and Chinese Handcuffs) are amazing. Yes, they contain some dirty language. Yes, they contain references to sex. But students, no matter what schools they go to, are aware of the troubling issues his books address. It seems a bit na�ve to deny the fact that the issues exist. I think parents and teachers can use the books as an opportunity for discussion.

Chris Lynch is another amazing author who has written a number of books that have themes that resonate with boys. In Inexcusable, a date rape committed by a high school student is told from the boy's point of view. It is an eye-opening book that sheds light on a number of problems that merit deep discussion.

Okay, boys enjoy reading books that are edgy, books that are humorous and irreverent. Are there any other characteristics to look for?

Yes, the environment―the setting, the situation―has to ring true. To do this well, the author must have the skill of a Walter Dean Myers. Walter Dean Myers's Autobiography of My Dead Brother, whose story touches on the deaths of two young men killed in drive-by shootings, is a very real and authentic story.

For middle school students, an example of an excellent book with an authentic setting, characters, and humor is Andrew Clements's Lunch Money, really all of Clements's stories. He usually sets them in the school environment, one place with which students are all too familiar.

Then there's Surviving the Applewhites, by Stephanie Tolan. Recounting the tale of a young man sent to an untraditional home school, the characters "feel" real. In addition, it is funny, and the plot is substantial, even though it is not as fast-paced as some of the previously mentioned books.

Nonfiction books are also a favorite of boys. Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science (by John Fleischman) recounts a true tale about a man who lived for many years with an iron rod in his head―the rod had become lodged there as a result of an accident. Because of his condition, Gage was the subject of much brain research. The gore quotient is high, but the kids love it.

Another book that comes to mind is Frozen Man (by David Getz). It describes the discovery of a frozen body that had been buried in the Alps for about 5,300 years. The book is filled with all kinds of graphic details, such as a description of the stomach bacteria that was found―details that seem to be extremely popular with boys.

In Corpses, Coffins and Crypts: A History of Burial, Penny Colman writes about ancient burial customs. This topic also seems to be a hook that catches the interests of boys. The same thing goes for What You Never Knew About Tubs, Toilets, & Showers by Patricia Lauber.

Nonfiction writers are giving us a ton of stuff. And these often include visuals that boys like―maps, old newspapers, charts, graphs. The placement of chunks of text integrated with numerous visuals makes the Eyewitness books fun to read.

Dolphin Adventure, Dolphin Freedom, and Dolphin Treasure, by Wayne Grover, are also good choices for reluctant readers. They are about 80 pages long and offer ecological adventures dealing with the health and habitat of dolphins. Grover, a former military diver and naturalist, provides authentic details about dolphin habitat and the environmental dangers dolphins face.

What about fiction books for reluctant readers?

Fast-paced and high adventure are key to engaging boys in reading. Jeanne DuPrau's City of Ember and the sequel, People of Sparks, are two good examples. This science fiction series, set in an underground world, is filled with adventure. Other high-adventure books include Carl Hiaasen's Flush and Kenneth Oppel's Skybreaker.

Less fast-paced, perhaps, but a good adventure story is Code Talker, by Joseph Bruchac, about the part a number of Navajo Marines played in World War II.

What do you think of graphic novels? They seem to be growing in popularity.

They are becoming more popular. Marcia Williams wrote and illustrated several in this format, Tales from Shakespeare, The Adventures of Robin Hood, and several others. A teacher could easily use them as a way to draw kids in, and the added visual information provides lots of support to the reader. I mentioned earlier the book Autobiography of My Dead Brother―the artwork by Christopher Myers gives it the feel of a graphic novel.

Picture books can offer much to all readers. I am thinking in particular about memoir books and biographies. Two good examples that jump out at me are Always Remember Me, a story by about a family that survived the Holocaust written by Marisabina Russo, and My Brother Martin, a biography of Martin Luther King Jr. written by his sister Christine King Farris.

Books on tape provide another way to support reading and learning. Struggling and reluctant readers can listen to a tape and then read the book. In the listening, they get support for their independent reading and the enjoyment of a great story. In fact, students can be hooked into reading a whole series just by listening to one book that captures their interest.

I fear that it sometimes must seem to both students and teachers that everything they do is a test. They even get graded on homework. Reading shouldn't seem that way. Create joy in reading. That's the prize!

Sally Oddi is the owner of Cover to Cover Bookstore at 3560 North High Street in Columbus. Prior to opening the store, she taught in several Columbus schools for eleven years, seven years as a teacher of reading in both elementary and middle school. She has given hundreds of book talks, workshops, and in-services for teachers in her twenty-five years as owner of Cover to Cover.

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