Andrew Reibach enjoys reading with his 12-year-old son Stephen each week during meetings of the Just for Guys Book Club at Mt. Lebanon Public Library.
"It's a wonderful way to spend time with my son," Andrew Reibach said. "It's also good to hear other people's perspective about the book because we all have different interpretations."
The club also addresses gender differences in reading, said library Director Cynthia Richey.
"We have long known that boys read less than girls as a group," Richey said. "Boys tend not to read as much and also tend to stop reading about the age of 10."
A study published last spring in the Journal of the American Medical Association said that about 20 percent of middle school age boys had reading difficulties compared with about 11 percent of the girls.
"Falling behind in reading plays a large part in behavioral problems that can occur," said Barbara Sprung, co-director of the New York based Educational Equity Center at the Academy for Educational Development.
The Just for Guys Book Club was started to help address this problem, Richey said.
"There has been a big push in the last few years to get more middle school age boys to read," Richey said. "Boys don't see reading as a masculine activity. They don't see their fathers reading as much as their mothers. And also, male teachers do not tend to read aloud to their students in class as often as female teachers."
The reading club was the first of its kind in the state when started 2 1/2 years ago, and remains the only one, Richey said.
"The attitude about boys and reading needs to be addressed very early," Sprung said. "They somehow get the message that reading is not for them at an early age. We have to show them that it's OK to read and that it's cool. The program at the Mt. Lebanon Public Library is a terrific, radical idea and should be a model for other libraries."
There are about 20 father-son pairs participating in the club, which meets the third Wednesday of each month. The group meets for about an hour to discuss the current book under consideration. Books are selected by Richey and Jim Lutz, a retired Mt. Lebanon School District teacher.
In last week's discussion about The Schwa Was Here by Neal Shusterman, in which one of the characters has an almost supernatural knack for seeming to become invisible, the group talked about times in their lives that they felt invisible. Toward the end of the evening, the group participates in an activity and enjoys refreshments related to the book's plot.
"I enjoy it for a couple reasons," said Jim Cappucci, who is a member of the club with his son Peter, 12. "I get to read books that I didn't have an opportunity to read when I was younger and it's also a great bonding experience for me and my son."
For more information, call the Mt. Lebanon Public Library at 412.531.1912 or visit their Website at www.mtlebanonlibrary.org . The next Just for Guys Book Club meeting will be at 7 p.m. Nov. 16.
Additional Information:
Just for Guys Booklist
