Children’s Village Gives Boys Hope

At Children’s Village, a private, not-for-profit corporation that serves the needs of troubled boys, Pam Allyn started a program called Books for Boys—a literary initiative that encourages boys to see themselves as lifelong readers. Pam recently took me on a tour of one of the campus cottages, where a group of fifteen boys live.

As we enter the cottage, sweet maple syrup wafts out from the kitchen. Pam points to the small library set up on a side wall. She explains that while some boys are advanced and reading James Patterson or Stephen King, others need help with their letters and struggle with preschool books.

Trips to public libraries become tricky, especially for struggling readers. “Books are either in the young adult section or the children’s section,” she says. Older, struggling readers feel self-conscious about being in the children’s section, so they don’t want to read at all. In the cottage libraries, Pam is able to combine books of all levels on the shelves: advanced novels and stories with simple picture books or non-fiction illustrated books about animals.

In addition to the cottage libraries, the program provides reading mentors, a visiting author series, an internship program through Amherst College, and a campus library where boys can relax and explore books.

The more motivated readers take part in a book club that meets once a month to allow boys of the same reading level to interact. The boys go to a local Hebrew home to read to elderly women, too. Pam smiles. “The ladies feel they’re doing a favor for the boys, while the boys feel they’re doing a favor for the ladies.” Everyone benefits.

Pam would like to deepen and grow all of these programs. It would mean extensive training for the reading mentors and systematizing the whole operation. She’d like to incorporate a storytelling project, too, so kids could capture their life stories and words for the public to read. All of this requires more time and staffing. Last year Books for Boys won a James Patterson Pageturner Award and they’re finalists again for 2006.