hen it comes to boys and reading, many teachers are left wringing their hands, even wrenching out hair in frustration. Schools these days find themselves increasingly forced to focus on SATS and the curriculum to the exclusion of all else. As a result, children from families where there’s no culture of reading for pleasure now only encounter a book as a text to be studied.

A few years ago my sister, concerned because her son was not getting on well with the school system and did not read, asked me to write something that might inspire him. After a long hard think about what had excited me in my pre-teen years, I wrote Brooksie. Since then I have written six more novels. I also visit schools and libraries across the country giving readings and performances, talking about the writing process and running workshops to stimulate literary creativity and imagination. It is my impression that a lot more needs to be done (and can be) to encourage boys in their reading.             

Between the ages of seven and thirteen I read widely and usually with huge enthusiasm. I was fortunate - I’d been read to when young and had felt the grip of powerful storytelling. Being hooked by a book is an unforgettable experience, and I wanted it again and again. Recently there has been a short-sighted cull of local libraries that is nothing short of criminal. As a young boy the local library played a crucial function in my development as a reader, allowing me to sample a wide range of books till I found what hit the spot. Books that didn’t live up to their blurbs/covers were quickly abandoned. In the early years of reading it is vitally important that children are allowed to discover what they enjoy reading and what they don’t. And without access to a wide selection of books this is impossible. Being hooked by a book is an unforgettable experience but being forced to read something dull can put a new reader off for a very long time. Even for life.

On my school visits I hear horror stories about particular genres or imprints being prohibited because the writing is poor and the stories lack any literary merit. This is a tactical blunder - when kids read they should be encouraged whatever it is they are reading. When I was young my mum wouldn’t let me read picture strip adventure comics. I read them anyway in secret and eventually she caved in. Words and pictures together give an intense fix, but after a while I grew tired of their formulaic stories and moved on. I never stopped reading books: choosing what I liked and rejecting what I didn’t. Becoming a more discerning reader.

Granted - there are plenty of dreadful books out there. Children’s publishers produce an astonishing number of new titles every month and most will not withstand the test of time. But if a reluctant reader gets hooked by a story that is poorly written, the fact that he or she is reading at all is a good thing. If a child likes a story enough to read it and enjoy it we should celebrate. Readers become discerning through reading. And right now there’s more good stuff out there than ever before.

When I write I am writing for the boy reader I once was and for the adult reader I am now. When I read I still hunger for stories that rouse my curiosity, stories that pull me in, stories told with pace and surprises, stories that explore old themes, stories that show me new things and show familiar things anew, stories my imagination can enter into and be gripped by, stories I can believe utterly, but above all: good stories well told. Those are the kind of stories I try to write.

Boys need role models who read and role models who write. Boys also need stories that excite and interest them, that speak to them. Publishers don’t just need to publish those stories, they need to promote them. And so do booksellers. Bookshops need to tempt boys in. Last year during the World Cup, although I’m not writing football stories at the moment, I hoped to see advertising campaigns, posters or at least bookshop window displays promoting football books to boys. It was a perfect opportunity, but I didn’t spot anything. What a waste.

Has there ever been an advertising campaign designed to sell books by appealing specifically to boys? I certainly haven’t noticed any. Reading Champions, Lads and Dads clubs and others are doing some very good work in this area, but what about publishers and booksellers? Yes, I know one or two boys in a class are reading the Harry Potter books, but they are the boys who would be reading anyway. Targeting groups that already read - as publishers do - and promoting books that already sell well is not going to change things. We need to sell the idea to all boys that reading is something for them, something exciting, rewarding and cool.

Bringing writers into schools is one brilliant way to do this. I know my own interest in reading and writing was given an enormous boost when the maverick beat poet Adrian Henri visited our school. (And I hear the trooper is still touring! Keep up the good work Adrian!) I was massively impressed by him and can still remember the occasion vividly. He was the real thing, and in our school! He was irreverent and funny, he was strange. He was out there! Just what the doctor ordered.

And it still works today. The feedback I get from teachers after visits tells me again and again that the impact has been enormous. Why aren’t more schools doing it? Some heads are much better at tapping into funds than others. I am regularly asked to do anywhere up ten days in one school. Yet other schools have never had an author visit for a single day. Every school head I’ve spoken to tells me there is money out there for all schools to have a visit, it’s a matter of knowing how to access it. Teachers are on the reading front line and in my experience well aware that getting boys reading is about so much more than literacy. You need all the help you can get – from reading organisations, from publishers, booksellers and authors. If you have a head that says there’s no money for an author visit – badger! There is. And, believe me, it’ll make a big difference.