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Shannon Hale, author of the “Princess Academy” series (Bloomsbury), recently returned from a book tour for her latest title, Princess Academy: The Forgotten Sisters (2015). Speaking at a K–8 school, she discovered that boys and girls were in the audience from the younger grades—but boys from upper grades were not invited, she says. This is the fourth time Hale remembers facing a situation where boys were excluded from her readings. She wrote about the latest experience on her blog and described it on Twitter (@HaleShannon), where she lit up the social network. Shannon Hale
Photo by Jenn Florence.
I've done perhaps 200 assemblies. The boys ALWAYS listen to me. It's the administration beforehand that assumes that they won't. — Shannon Hale (@haleshannon) March 2, 2015
Author Kate Messner believes that segregating boys from so-called girl books does more than just keep them from titles they may enjoy. It teaches boys that women speakers and female characters have nothing to offer them, she says. Messner, who recently returning from a 22-school tour for her book All The Answers (Bloomsbury, 2015), adds that she has never had a gender-segregated audience. But she believes the issue needs to be discussed and addressed. “There is sexism in our industry. More people are talking about it, and I hope this is a catalyst for talking about it [further],” she says. “If we’re teaching young boys that women’s voices don’t matter, than what do we expect when men get older and have to coexist with women in the workplace?” YA female authors Libba Bray, E. Lockhart, and Gayle Forman addressed the issue publicly when they appeared together at a panel at the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe in New York on February 27. All three wore fake mustaches, telling the audience that they were protesting how boys were kept from titles that are considered “girl books.” “Every female author I know has a notebook full of sexism stories about life as a woman who writes,” Bray had tweeted earlier, (@LibbaBray) just after Hale shared her story on social media. Every female author I know has a notebook full of sexism stories about life as a woman who writes. Every. Single. One. — Libba Bray (@libbabray) February 26, 2015
Others weighed in using the hashtag #boysreadgirls to name their favorite books about girls. In 7th grade I read entire Anne of Green Gables series. & I was a reader of Batman comics @haleshannon #BoysReadGirls http://t.co/SMrrJ41sKk — Jarrett J. Krosoczka (@StudioJJK) March 2, 2015
Urban herself asks why people believe they should prevent boys from making decisions about what they read. She says that her high school visits to co-ed creative writing classes have all been “fine.” She also wonders why some educators choose to make decisions for boys and girls based on gender—and nothing else. “I've met boys who connect with [A Crooked Kind of Perfect] because they are musicians or because they have parents who seem to care more about their office work than their kids,” she says by email. “Why suggest that the only point of entry for a kid reader is sharing the same chromosomes as the protagonist?” We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing