At the risk of ticking someone off, 4 of the 15 writers here are women, when we are 50% of the population. Already we are skewing to the same ratios as the former booklists.

Tamora, you could spark an interesting debate. As an English teacher, I think it is important to consider some diversity of authorship, though I don't believe I take into consideration an equal mix of author gender in my reading habits and recommendations--it's all about the writing and reviews. I do believe that required reading material should present a gender balance of protagonists, however, as boys tend to read only boy protagonists while girls will ready any good story...I am adding some more excellent coming-of-age literature with female authors/protagonists in mind.

Colleen wrote: "Tamora, you could spark an interesting debate. As an English teacher, I think it is important to consider some diversity of authorship, though I don't believe I take into consideration an equal mix..."

I never thought much about this before I was asked to compile a 9 - 12 required reading list for a homeschooled friend. Checking the lists posted by various schools online, I was appalled to see how many books, particularly in grades 11 and 12, were written by white, European/North American men who died before the turn of the 20th century. In the end, I gave my friend two lists, a more standard one with as many of the traditional works, but a higher load of works still considered literary, but written by female and/or non-white authors, and my own list, still compiled with a view to recognized literary merit (I didn't want anyone at any college to look down their noses at my friend for being ill-read!), but with a higher ratio of female and/or non-white authors, as well as a stronger selection of plays and poetry.

This is required reading, so the boys will have to read the books with girl characters, and if the books are carefully chosen, they may end up liking them. My feeling is that the perception that "boys won't read books with female protagonists" means boys are never given that chance to expand their horizons--I speak as a writer with an audience that's 30% boys, for all that I have principally girl heroes (admittedly, they're surrounded by boys). I also feel that the idea that girls will read anything feels as if girls must settle, when they should be give strong characters and writers of their own sex as role models.

Luckily for us, there are a lot of good, new, literary books out there that give both boys and girls a chance to expand their horizons in terms of writing and characters!

Tammy Pierce

My feeling is that the perception that "boys won't read books with female protagonists" means boys are never given that chance to expand their horizons--I speak as a writer with an audience that's 30% boys, for all that I have principally girl heroes (admittedly, they're surrounded by boys). I also feel that the idea that girls will read anything feels as if girls must settle, when they should be give strong characters and writers of their own sex as role models.

Word. That. That exactly explains why I get uneasy when I hear people worrying about making sure there are more "boy books" out there, while not worrying about the quality of the "girl books" hardly at all, because girls will read anything so we don't have to fret about them.

And the number of parents--it's always the parents, not the kids--who won't pick up a book for their sons unless they know the main character is a boy first is more than a little troubling.

Janni wrote: "My feeling is that the perception that "boys won't read books with female protagonists" means boys are never given that chance to expand their horizons--I speak as a writer with an audience that's ..."

Every time someone tells me there are no books for boys, I point them to the very long list of books I compiled when I got sick of hearing that (it's on my website). The first time I posted it, I added, "And let's not forget the 800-pound GORILLA, Harry [CENSORED:] Potter!"

You're right about the parents. They have to be educated, too--they're the ones who pass on the stereotypes. You'd think they'd want their kids to read whatever was available so they wouldn't hear "I don't have anything to read."

It'd be nice if the gender, sexual proclivities, nationality, ethnicity, religion, time, or whatnot of the author was never introduced and we could simply read good literature. Period.

However, where an author comes from or the time they come from is sometimes as or more important then the work itself.

Just because something was written by a white European/NA man who died a long time ago isn't a good enough reason (for me) to toss out a solid piece of literature. After all, if we can toss out the really old white dudes why can't we toss out the not so old yet old white females?

Maybe there is some argument to expanding boys parameters...yet, I find that odd as when little children are given toys boys do tend to go one direction (cars) and girls tend to go in another (dolls) direction.

The sexes are wired differently. Why would their choice in books be the same?

Girls tend to be better readers. If the majority of girls willl read anything and the majority of boys won't I don't see it as catering to boys and girls settling. I see it as girls getting a broader overview while boys are trying to find their way in the reading world.

Anything that gets kids to read, well, maybe not anything...is good in my books and I don't care what sex or color the author is.

I've been assigned both The Outsiders and Persepolis for school. They're amazing books, both, and I was very happy to have some more "modern" coming-of-age stories in the mix.

Tara, Persepolis is another great modern title and more so in that it's a graphic novel. Hope you add more to this list.

The NPR link is bad, so here it is: http://www.good.is/post/stop-teaching...