Reading Don’t Fix No Chevys – Book Review

My #1 Favorite Book of ALL TIME

I’ve read many books on Getting Boys to Read. Jeff and Michael’s book, Reading Don’t Fix No Chevys, has had the most impact on me and the hundreds of boys I have worked with over the years. This book provided concrete examples that really helped me undersatand what boys need to be successful in school. This book has been a HUGE inspiration in launching Getting Boys to Read.com and in my career as a Teacher-Librarian. I liked this book so much that I offered a free lunch for for teachers in my buidling that read it! I really liked how thorough their reearch was.

Summary:

This book is a case study of a diverse mixture of 49 middle school and high school aged boys. Through tons of insightful interviews, you’ll get to know these boys and issues that they face around literacy. This book is great for

parents, teachers, and anyone that works with boys learning to read. It is highly engaging and a fairly quick read.

Audio Interview

Be sure to listen to my audio interview with one of the authors, Jeff Wilhelm

Highlights:

This book summarizes a year long study of 49 middle & HS boys
Tons of insightful interviews
P. 10 & 11: Great comparative summary of Achievement, Attitude, Choice, & Response
P. 96-?: Competence, Control & Challenge
Insightful comparisons to video games
Chapter 5: Texts they like & why
Importance of non-fcition / real events
Boys prefer tons of visuals!
In order to serve their needs, you must strive to understand them better
Great tips for teachers at the end

2 Questions To Comment On:

What is your interpretation of the title?
If you read the book, what did you find interesting?

Posted in: Content

Tagged as: Book Reviews (for adults), Jeff Wilhelm

Article by Mike McQueen

I'm a teacher-librarian, author, and founder of GettingBoysToRead.com. I hope you enjoy your experience on our site. Be sure to sign up for my free video course, 8 Ways to Hook a Struggling Reader by filling out the form on the top right side of the page.

{ 11 comments… add one }

Anonymous

It puzzled me to see how difficult it was to make boys interested in reading.
tiffany necklaces It was an eye opener.

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Paul Gray

I read this book on your recommendation and am very glad I did. While I teach younger students than those targeted in the research, I certainly could see how much of it would apply to my classroom setting. I appreciated the insight to what boys read at home and how they view school reading. I teach fifth grade students, so I really don’t need to worry about the "classic" books that those in higher grades need to make appealing to their students. However, I began to look at books I do assign a little more critically. It was interesting that the boys noted some authors over-describe characters and their actions as well as setting. I have tried to be more aware of these feelings. I have also reevaluated what I have students read in guided reading groups. Much of these assignments are short so we can read them and get on with the discussion of the strategy or literary element about which the lessons focus. I have supplied a variety of texts which I feel should appeal to a large number of students. The thing I was forgetting, which the authors noted, was humor. As a result, I have been trying to gather a collection of Guys Write for Guys Read as the short stories have a good deal of humor and can easily be used in many guided reading settings. I let a couple of boys read one copy together during a silent reading period. They kept working to stifle their laughter, and I have to admit I found Gary Paulsen’s story about an electric fence rather humorous. It may be my own connections to a certain electric fence where a group of us grabbed hands for the “chain of shock.” These short lessons should provide a good scaffold for the students to apply their learning to their novel responses in a more independent manner. I also wondered about Hyperstudio Stacks and how they would help the scholars represent their thinking through electronic media. Having discovered what these stacks are, I feel the students can use PowerPoint in a very similar manner, so I am having my students try this next week. They are usually motivated by technology, but we probably have overused podcasting this year. This new idea will provide another option for the learners to share their thinking about what they read.

I was very interested in reading more about the idea of Symbolic Representation Interview or Symbolic Story Representation. I often think having the conversations with the students may yield a greater response that having them write out their thoughts. The students could make their cutouts and talk through their thinking, which should be more appealing than writing. Talking through things will also help focus their writing on the occasions when it is assigned. I was particularly interested in the cutout that represents themselves as the reader. To find out more about this idea, I have found copies of Jeffery Wilhelm’s You Gotta Be the Book and Nancie Atwell’s The Reading Zone. If anyone has read these books, I would be interested in your thoughts.

Thanks for the recommendation, I really enjoyed the book and will likely refer to it regularly throughout the years to come.

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samanthajr

I think it shows what boys are really interested in. It shows they would rather think about cars and work on cars then read. They need that inspiration to read. The title sells the book to me!

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Debby1

I have to admit I had no clue this book existed. I am going to the library tomorrow with the boys so guess what I’ll be looking for.

The title is awesome and it pretty much explains it all. I can’t wait to get my hands on this. I have had two boys go through highschool but I have one heading to middle school next year and one in the 3rd grade so I still have great reason to devour this piece of work.

Thanks for the wonderful share!

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Rose

I think the title implies that reading is totally uncool. And that boys would rather go out, get their bodies moving than sit around in the house and read.
I couldn’t give you an informed comment about the book because I haven’t read it yet. Does it have an e-book version? Would be very much interested to read the case studies.

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zemlene

As for me the title “Reading Don’t Fix No Chevys”, means that reading can’t only help small issues but rather, this will be a big help to most of the kids out there to develop skills and be an expert with it.

I haven’t read the book yet which is unfortunate of me because i think that this could also helped me not only professionally but personally as well.

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vanessa_cruz0615

The title seems to be catchy for boys who doesn’t love to read…I haven’t see a copy of it yet, but from your description, I’m sure this book contains more info about boys literacy.

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Mike McQueen

Debby-6-Kids, this book would be especially good for you to help you with not only your high school boys, but also to learn about the issues at your third-grade son will soon be facing.

No, Rose, there is no e-book version that I’m aware of. E-books — now that’s a whole other topic! Stay tuned for another blog article from me about e-books. It’s a very hot topic!

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Chuck

What is my interpretation of the title?

It says a lot of things. At first glance I would say to be manly you don’t need to read. Fixing a car needs a man not someone who reads. Fixing a car would need someone who DOES and not someones who READS.

It also connotes that reading is not essential in the basic necessities of living in a society. You don’t need to read to be a useful citizen. You just have to know how to do things.

It tells something of a culture, of a society, or just even of a small group of boys. Teenagers want to be part of a clique and reading can be a hindrance to it since it is not manly, or not useful in life.

That’s my first impression of the title.

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Sophie

I read this book during my graduate classes and I just loved it. It puzzled me to see how difficult it was to make boys interested in reading. It was an eye opener.

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Biggestbooklover

The title of this book implies to me that boys’ perceptions about reading are different from what they actually do, which is to read things that they do not consider to be “real reading”, i.e. magazines, gaming cheat codes, web pages, comics, auto repair manuals, and so on.

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