I was tired of reading conferences that resulted in tears, tired of boys who hate reading or think that they're not good readers and tired of not seeing more progress with this problem with each passing school year.

Since 1982, boys have trailed girls in reading in every grade level. This gap between the reading capabilities of boys and girls gets worse with each passing year and grade (Psychology Today, What is it with Boys and Reading, 2018).

​

I have always been passionate about reading and literacy, especially for boys. In my 16 years as an educator, I have worked on and with several teams to develop and implement interventions to help to bridge the gap between male and female students and White and Black boys. Though we've made progress, the gaps are still there. Becoming a mother, in 2016 to a boy, gave me a renewed sense of urgency and, better yet, an idea.

​

What if we intervened more when boys were younger, before they started to hate reading? What if we showed boys the joys of reading and the positive impact it could have on their futures?

​

This is how I Love a Good Book and the other stories in this series came to be, out of the desire to inspire a new generation of boys who love books and reading. I Love a Good Book will provide an additional resource and ideas for teachers and parents to inspire boys to read. I also wrote I Love a Good Book because of the problems I've had trying to find good books for young boys in my classes and the difficulty finding diverse books for my own son.

I Love a Good Book is a story about a young boy who loves books. He loves reading books with his dad, mom and grandmother, but he has a secret. Can you guess what it is?!

I Love a Good Book, along with the upcoming books in the series, will feature diverse boys and also diverse experiences for boys. Each book will portray boys in a positive light. One of the main goals of I Love a Good Book, and the other books in the series, is to help to develop a love of books and promote early literacy in young boys.