By Greg Neri, Author of Chess Rumble

“They want to be what they see. A boy doesn’t want to be a woman. He wants to do what a man does. And if he doesn’t see a man reading, he won’t read.” (From Gail Giles’ “Wanted, Male Models: There’s a good reason why boys don’t read.” School Library Journal, December 2008.)

One of the reasons I write for boys is because there are so few men writing from the male teenage perspective. So when I write, I’m thinking about the boy I was, the one who didn’t like reading. My breakthrough as a reader came when I found a book that changed the notion in my head of what a book could be. It took me by surprise and I probably thought, I didn’t know you could do that in a book!

As a writer, I try to surprise the new reader by constantly reinventing the notion of what a book can be or do. Voice is really important. I wrote Chess Rumble with a distinctly urban male voice, something you rarely see in books. The number one thing I hear from readers is that they are shocked to read a voice like that in a book. Inner city, street—call it what you will; it’s a voice they know and can relate to but have never seen in print before.

I always say you can’t give Jane Austen to urban boys and expect them to connect to it. That time and place is too far removed from their own experiences. You must create a bridge to Jane Austen, expose boys to the fact that their stories are just as worthy of being represented in books. So I look at Chess Rumble as a gateway book, something that surprises boys, gets them reading for the first time, and hopefully opens them up to exploring other voices in other books too.

The other thing about books for urban boys is that the stories must deal with issues directly, honestly, and without sentimentalizing or being preachy. Add a cover that boys won’t be embarrassed being seen with and make sure the inside is not daunting upon first look. A thin volume told in free verse with bold illustrations made Chess Rumble attractive and readable.

I have seen it firsthand many times: A boy in the back of the class, looking bored, picks up a copy of an eye-catching book and opens it with no intention of reading it. But the images and realistic voice grab him; and before he realizes it, that boy has read the entire book. I’ve seen this happen with my own book, and often I’ll be told later that that boy has never read anything before. Those moments give me all the juice I need to keep writing these stories.

To find more books for boys, check out my reading list on my website: www.gneri.com.