On Getting Boys to Read & Engage More in the Library

In March this year boys borrowed more books than girls here at Glenthorne. Typically, girls borrow 12-15% more than boys on a monthly basis. Just because they are borrowing more doesn’t mean they are reading those books, but it’s a positive sign.

Update: In Oct 2019 boys borrowed close to 16% more than girls, in the month before boys borrowing was almost dead even with girls. 

Getting boys to read more has been the topic of many discussion and I found the same discussions were happening when I worked as a Teen Services Librarian in Canada.

A study published by the Guardian a few years ago showed that boys read less, skip pages and choose “easier” books than girls. You can read the full report here.

I’ve put in a lot of work to try to keep boys coming to the Library, reading books and engaging with what they are reading. These strategies work for girls, too. An aversion to reading isn’t gender specific, however every time you take a look at any research it always shows that boys read less.

Here are some strategies I’ve put in place to combat this. I’m not saying these will work for your school, but I’ve noticed a big uptake in the number of boys in the Library and of course the number of books they are borrowing.

Give Them Responsibility

In the past, the majority of our Student Library Assistants were girls. They were the ones that came and applied for the position and they were the ones that seemed to be using the Library more. Over the past year and a half, boys now make up half of our ten Student Library Assistants. I'm very excited to see their enthusiasm and how it can be infectious.

We also run a student-led podcast from the Library. When it started, it was all girls and now we have a good mixture (some of them being Student Library Assistants). These kinds of activities are great at drawing boys. Boys like to see the end result and the value of what they are doing. Completing a podcast, if it interests them, has a definite beginning and end with a tangible, finished product. 

Make It Interactive

Here at Glenthorne, we have a subscription to Authorfy. It’s extremely affordable and well worth the cost. Authorfy provides author masterclasses with schemes of work, writing challenges and more. I recently had a small class of Year 7s in the Library, primarily made up of boys who I personally find it difficult to find books they will connect with.

I showed them the videos of Andy Griffiths discussing his 13 Storey Treehouse series. At the end, I showed the video where Andy gives the class a writing challenge – design your own treehouse, imagine money was no object. You want a rollercoaster? No problem, you want a machine that shoots doughnuts directly into your mouth? Sure.

After the video I brought out the entire series of the Treehouse books and told the group to use them for inspiration. All of the books ended up being borrowed that day. The students then spent 30 minutes pouring over them, designing their treehouses and we spent the last 10 minutes discussing their creations. Both boys and girls really connected to these videos.

You can read how I used Kwame Alexander’s Authory masterclass here.

I also try to create activities around books I think boys will like. For instance, I made a research lesson around Onjali Q. Rauf’s novel, The Boy at the Back of the Class. Both boys and girls connected to this project but I noticed a sharp intake in the number of boys who borrowed the book after these lessons. You can view this lesson here.

Go Beyond the Books

We have a ton of boys who read Manga here at Glenthorne. I spotted this way back when I first started working here and created an after school Manga Club. Again, we do have girls who join but for whatever reason, the boys seem to stick with the program on a more serious level. When looking at the stats in the month of March, boys borrowed a lot of Manga. Therefore I try to stock the Library with as much as I can.

We do tons of activities around Manga, crafts, games, we watch anime, we have illustrators in and we do class trips. I wrote an article on running a fun and engaging Manga club which can be found here. 

You may find that you have a lot of comic book fans or fans of a certain style of book. Starting a book club or after school club around these topics will pay off. I have found the program has evolved and changed over the years to fit the needs of the students. If you provide the space, and some snacks, they will come and make it their own.

Read Aloud

Again, this works for both boys and girls but in our Year 7 & 8 Library Lessons, I have noticed a lot of boys’ heads perk up when I read aloud, especially when it’s a certain kind of book. I had a lot of success reading aloud a series of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books, especially any that deal with horror.

I would read aloud and let the group choose what path our character took. It was a lot of fun and we became one cohesive group, trying to survive the zombie apocalypse or tracking down bloodthirsty werewolves. At the end of these programs I always have a huge pile of these books at the ready, I recommend the i-Hero series.

Although they are not choose your own adventure, I also highly recommend the I Survived series by Lauren Tarshis. I read aloud passages of the 1918 Shark Attack book and had so many hands go up for it I realised I should have had way more copies. Luckily, there are a lot of books in that amazing series and I was able to get them into the hands of the boys that asked for them.

Author Visits

These aren’t always possible. Budgets are tight, authors sometimes can’t travel to your location or you may not have the right space to do it. However in my opinion author visits are crucial to get both boys and girls reading. If an in-person author visit doesn’t work, try asking them for a Skype. My approach is that I just find their web site and send them a message. Authors should always have some sort of payment however we have been very fortunate here at Glenthorne and have had a lot of free Skype visits in the past.

One example of how we used an author visit to engage boys to read. The school identified thirty boys from Year 9 that we felt needed to diversify their reading habits. I chose one book for the group to read, it was Straight Outta Crongton by Alex Wheatle. Once a week these boys would come to the Library before school started and in groups of four or five would read and discuss passages from the book. Each group had a member of the Senior Leadership team, including the Head Teacher, all reading the same book and having engaging conversations.

When they finished the book we asked Alex to come to the Library to speak to the students. His life story is amazing, heart-breaking and raw. When it was over, the boys immediately asked for his other books, I now have a shelf of Alex’s work and they consistently go out, typically in the hands of boys.

This was a unique example for us but having a visit, whether in person or Skype always pays off when it comes to getting students to engage with books.

Build Your Collection & Give Them Choice

Again, this is easier said than done with today’s tight budgets. However, if you are able to bring in books that you know boys will read it will be well worth it. This may be trial and error, it may be that one book goes in and out of fashion but it’s worth a shot. Here are the books that have consistently been the most popular here at Glenthorne, at least in the last few years. I’ve left out books that we all know are hugely popular, the goal is to introduce them to novels that go beyond the obvious choice.


Give them choice, let them make the decision for themselves. If you try to force a book on a student, boy or girl, they're going to sit and stare at the pages and pretend to read. One approach that I've found successful is to bring out a wide selection and make them aware of the books' existence. This has helped a lot. Also, I do activities like Book Tasting which helps a lot.

I also do a lot of book-talking to get both boys and girls to read. I wrote an article on how important  book talks are in my opinion and how effective they can be. This particular moment involved Mitch Johnson's novel Kick. You can read that article here.

With non-fiction, what is popular at Glenthorne boys are books on urban myths, sports biographies, World War Two, Cryptozoology (bigfoot, Lock Ness monster etc) and of course Ripley’s and Guinness Records.

For a list of 100 Book Boys Love, click here.