Author Q&A

Too many boys struggle with reading.

I grew up with five brothers, taught elementary school for ten years, and have been writing books for kids for the last fifteen years. I started writing bookslike The Stinky Cheese Man and the Time Warp Trio series in part to inspire my second-grade boys to want to read.

Now I’d like to do more. So I’ve started a nonprofit literacy initiative called GUYS READ. The basic idea is to help boys read by connecting them with books that will motivate them to want to read.

Recommendations to the original GUYS READ website provided hundreds of titles boys like to read. I asked one hundred of these authors and illustrators to write about being a guy, and their contributions made the anthology, Guys Write for Guys Read. Now the money from the anthology has built a new interactive website at www.guysread.com.Check it out. Let’s look into what’s going on with boys and reading. And let’s help our guys read.

Jon Scieszka