Christian Science Monitor on boys and "girls' books"

[Lenona]

"Nancy Drew and the case of a secret identity"

"This time, it was quite serious – how to appeal to boys? A quick-
thinking mother comes to the rescue."

http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/The-Home-Forum/2012/0302/Nancy-Drew-and-the-case-of-a-secret-identity

First half:

It was Nancy or nothing.

"Will you read me a story?" my 7-year-old asked. He and I were book-
starved in Johannesburg, South Africa, an 11-hour drive from Sam's
bedroom bookshelf in Zimbabwe.

For reasons that will become clear later on, I had no time to go
shopping for books, though bookshops galore beckoned in Johannesburg's
glitzy malls. Neither did I have the energy to concoct a story, as I'd
done so many times before.

I sneaked into Sam's cousin Alex's bedroom, hoping to raid her
bookshelf. Alex – short for Alexandra – is 9. Her bedroom is a little
girl's dream of a lair: beribboned quilt covers, embroidered cushions,
and giant hearts against a sky-blue wall.

I ran my finger along the spines on her shelf. My heart sank.

"There's an Owl in the Shower," by Jean Craighead George. Nice story,
but Sam and I had already read it. "Fairy Stories, Collected." Sam
would stop me after the first sentence. British author Lauren Child's
"Clarice Bean, That's Me." There was no way Sam would fall for sassy
Clarice, with her barely-disguised contempt for big brothers..........

I spied a chunk of Ladybird reference books. My hopes rose, only to be
dashed a second later. "No," Sam said firmly. "We read those at
school."

That left only Nancy Drew. Nancy wasn't a part of my childhood.
Growing up in rural England, I was reared on Enid Blyton's "Famous
Five" adventures, Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women," and L.M.
Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables" saga. I had, however, flicked
through a few "Nancy Drew" stories later in life. I knew that the
skilled amateur detective plunged herself bravely into dangerous
situations, always caught the criminals, and had the police, well,
just about eating out of her hand.

Nancy's exploits would bring a shine to Sam's eyes.

But there was a problem. She might be older than Clarice Bean, but
Nancy was undeniably a girl and that meant – certainly as far as Sam
was concerned – that "The Scarlet Macaw Scandal" was a story for
girls. Unless ...

"Mum?" Sam was getting desperate.

There was only one thing to do: Turn "Nancy Drew" into a boys' story.
To do that, I knew I'd need a strong male character. One of Nancy's
two best girlfriends and accomplices is called George. I decided to
make her a boy..............

(snip)

For a different take on the same subject, here's something from 2006:

http://www.slate.com/id/2137789/

Excerpts:

"The conventional educational wisdom holds that boys don't like to
read about girls. If a book has a girl on the cover, it's toast, no
matter how adventure-filled or well written. And this isn't a
phenomenon of puberty. The prejudice supposedly starts early in
elementary school, if not before. I decided not to believe it. While
my children aren't the literary equivalent of boys whose mother makes
them wear frilly collars, I often pull a beloved 'girl' book off the
shelf of the library and bring it home. And to my surprise Eli, who is
6, has been with me all the way.

"For this reason, the recent fretting that boys are laggard readers
makes me nervous. I don't like the idea of teachers or librarians
steering my sons toward some preconceived notion of "boy-friendly"
reading material. Don't tell my boys, subtly or directly, that they'd
probably prefer a book with a boy for a hero. Don't even point out the
distinction.

"To my relief, I've found that most advocates of boy reading aren't so
narrow-minded. They are not trying to direct boys toward a list of
masculine titles-in fact, they're refreshingly skeptical about
assigned reading in the first place. Instead, their aim is to enliven
the standard fare for both genders. What they have discovered is that
many boys like so-called "girl" books, but for different reasons than
girls do."


Lenona.