"An amazing thing happened
last Sunday at 6:30 p.m., as 15 boys--ages 8 to 11--sat rapt with
attention, taking part in a virtual meet-and-greet with an author to
talk about his latest book," the Mercer Island Patch noted in its piece on "Guys Read," a new reading project initiated by parents in the Lakeridge and West Mercer, Wash., area.
Megan
Hand started the book group when Cooper, her nine-year-old son and a
reluctant reader, brought home a flyer from Lakeridge Elementary School
that suggested holding a 'book party' to get boys interested in reading
the Guardians of Ga’Hoole series by Kathryn Lasky.
"I
thought this was going to be a one-off thing," she said. "But I had
Cooper invite his friends and their moms from his class at Lakeridge and
West Mercer (Elementary), and I promised we'd read the book as a group
and go see the movie afterward."
When 15 boys and their mothers
attended the first meeting, the project was officially launched. "The
kids went berserk," said Hand. "They insisted that we do another book,
until now we're on our seventh book. They say third grade is the year
you go from learning to read to reading to learn; every single boy in
our group leaps to the next amazing book--they love it."