Books!

by Phil

When it comes to reading and school, the last thirty years has seen a steadily-growing achievement gap between girls and boys. Girls have been improving in school while boys are being left behind. The message that boys don't read is out there. There are programs and strategies of all kinds to combat this growing and alarming trend. Besides being a dad, I am an illustrator of print materials and have a personal horse in this race.

Many factors are believed to contribute to boys disinterest in reading. One of the biggest reasons being that most boys don't have a male role-model that reads themselves. The men in many families don't read and that leads boys to think that it isn't a masculine pursuit. This has lead to the creation of several blogs and projects encouraging men to read, to allow their children to see them reading, and for them spend time reading to children.

I want my son to enjoy reading in all of its forms, including fiction, non-fiction, magazines and comic books. Having a role-model that reads isn't going to be a problem for him.

Lounging with Jon Scieszka & Lane Smith's Science Verse

Beyond just reading to him, though, I want to do everything I can to encourage a love of reading. So this past weekend, we went to the Tucson Festival of Books. It's something like the 3rd or 4th largest book festival in the country, with this year counting over 400 authors and illustrators presenting and over 100,000 attending. There are activities for every age group and every interest. It's impressive. It's fun. It's great to see so many people celebrating the written word.

His onesie, from the wonderful people at Bookman's, reads "eat. poop. read."

Saturday, my wife spent the bulk of the day with him while I attended various talks. Then on Sunday, we switched back and forth, one wandering the festival while the other went to panel discussions. And even though my kid's arch nemesis, the sun, was out and in full shine mode, we still enjoyed the two days of the festival. I think we can thank that overly large, brimmed hat from one of the local children's hospitals for helping him cope. His usual hat is big but this thing was giant!

Along with our routine trips to the library and reading every day, I hope to continue attending events like this with my son. I think its good for him to see so many different people of every demographic enjoying books. While meeting the people, authors and illustrators, that create the objects we love so much can also have a positive impact.

Yum!

I chose my particular career path not only because I love to paint but also because I love to read. I've always been a reader. Anything I can do to give that same gift to my son, I'm going to do. He seems to already enjoy his growing collection of books. Hopefully we'll be able to keep that going as he gets older and avoid the idea that reading isn't something that men do.

Inspecting Adam Rex's Tree Ring Circus