It May Just Be the Book

My son is a very reluctant 11 year old reader. I continue to read to him. I encourage him to read aloud to me. However, even the word, “reading” throws him into fits. He will do almost anything in his power to avoid reading. He is very frustrated reader, but I don’t think he realizes how far he has come. He will tell you that he is not a reader because he cannot read every word that he comes across. My argument of course is the opposite; since he can read most of the words he comes across, he is a reader.

Lately though, he has diverged from his normal aversion to reading. He has actually been calling in books from the library. He has come by a series by Edge Books. The book titles include: Bowhunting, Camping, Canoeing, Deer Hunting, Duck Hunting, Fly Fishing, Freshwater Fishing, Hiking, Ice Fishing, Pheasant Hunting, Saltwater Fishing, and Snowmobiling. These titles are right up his alley. The series is only written on a 3rd –4th grade reading level, but he is reading on his own and enjoying it enough to request more. The books are not too long and therefore do not intimidate him. The subject matter touches on his “manly” passions and interests. The print is large and easily readable. It is broken up into reasonable chunks. These books are wonderful. I hope they write more.

Does anyone have other recommendations for reluctant readers? Especially boys?

Quotations I hope my son never finds about reading (notice they are all written by men):

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for avoiding thought.
Sir Arthur Helps

Reading musses up my mind.
Henry Ford (1863 - 1947)

What we call education and culture is for the most part nothing but the substitution of reading for experience, of literature for life, of the obsolete fictitious for the contemporary real.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)