But there are many boys who grow up to love reading. In 99 Ways To Get Kids To Love Reading, Mary Leonhardt suggests that these boys were strongly influenced by their fathers.

“In our culture, reading isn’t seen as tough and hard-hitting an activity as playing a sport, or fixing a car, or camping or hunting,” she says. So fathers who want their sons to enjoy reading need to spend time reading together. In that way, the son can see the importance the father places on reading.

Again and again, Leonhardt says, in conversations with high school boys who love to read, “I notice they mention how their fathers helped get them reading.”

All children are more likely to enjoy reading if they can find book characters with which they can identify. “For children to love reading, it’s very important that they see themselves in books,” she says. So if your child loves baseball, or worries about moving to a new school, or wishes he could be a cowboy in the old West, try to find a book that includes a character who can remind your son of himself.

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