Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

This is a big part of what I am all about as a librarian. Even though I'm providing a link to an acquaintance's original post, I'm going to republish the entirety here because I like it so much. If we're going to develop life-long, recreational readers, we have to figure out what they like.

Launching a Guys Read Field Office

When I tackled the idea of starting a lunchtime Guys Read field office at my son’s elementary school, I figured he and maybe two other kiddos would show up. I invited all boys in grades third through six, but honestly assumed the art room where we’d meet would be so cavernous you’d hear echoes.

Today was our first meeting and WOWZA! About 60 or so guys and a fourth grade teacher showed up! Some guys had to eat lunch on the floor. Not really, but it came close. Here are our highlights:

First order of business: Vote for your favorite things to read. The top 10:

- Books about war and/or weapons
- Books with at least one massive sword fight
- All Wimpy Kid books
- World records or other weird facts
- Anything having to do with Percy Jackson
- Monsters and ghost stories
- Books that explain how things work
- Books about sports or athletes
- Joke books
- Cereal boxes

Second order of business: Pick a Guys Read Field Office name. The top suggestions so far:

1. Chicken Machete
2. Read Big or Go Home
3. Daffodil Squad
4. Attack of the Mutant Reader Guys

Third order of Business: Decide how often to meet. Every other Monday during lunch.

So many guys showed up that we didn’t get to talk about some of the cool things we can do this year, like post suggestions or reviews or write and post our own stories at our Guys Read website. The older kids were mightily impressed that I’d met Gordon Korman (and more impressed when I described how big Mr. Korman’s arms are in real life) (they’re huge) and had an autographed copy of Coraline by Neil Gaiman. The younger guys mostly just wanted to tell jokes (Why did the elephant cross the road? To prove he wasn’t a chicken!) and to gape over my son’s copy of Ripley’s Believe it or Not!

It was so much fun.We talked about zombies and smashing stuff. I can’t wait until next time!