I am excited to announce that I have added a new feature to my blog: book reviews. Here is a quick explanation as to why I am doing this from my new Books for Boys review page:
“While searching for book blogs for submitting my own works, I realized that the majority of middle grade/young adult blogs out there were very female-centric. This is in no way a critique or complaint, but it led me to think that someone should create a blog that reviews books that can intrigue and engage young male readers.”
As a father of three boys (the eldest of which is a middle schooler) and a former high school English teacher, I know firsthand the challenges that educators face in finding books that encourage young males to read. Yes, this is a generalization, but it is one based on life experience and very few educators will disagree with me on this one.
That being said, I decided to start using some of my online real estate to highlight books that I think will engage this
challenging group of young people. Some of my recommendations will be based solely on my own opinion, others will be from books I’ve seen my pre-teen boy read (or encouraged him to read), and others will hopefully/gladly come from recommendations on this blog and/or social media.
To authors/publishers, I am open to review requests and, as an added bonus, I am specifically hoping to highlight titles that don’t get the big PR pushes from the big publishing houses. Yes, we all know Rick Riordan and Eoin Colfer are fantastic (and generally good books to encourage young male readers) but as a small, independent publisher of books myself (targeted for the MG/YA audience and generally enjoyed by males), I would be remiss if I did not offer space and time to help those small press/independent/self-published authors when I could.
That being said, I intend to start soon with some books I’ve already read but I look forward to adding new books to the TBR and reviewing them. Feel free to Contact Me if you’d like to suggest a book! Let the giant cartoon mallets roll!
