And I do mean boys, not men who haven't grown up. Interesting blog piece here:

http://community.livejournal.com/thru_the_booth/

about what it is that attracts boys to a book. (Thanks to the Editorial Anonymous blog for the link).

Emma

Thanks for that link Emma, what a brilliant site. I shall get lost in there for ages...

Interesting, although annoyingly he raised several good questions in earlier posts which he failed to answer.

- NaomiM

Emma,

That is a great post. I write for boys (I try to not think of it that way, but if I'm honest, that's the ideal reader group I have in mind when I put fingertips to keyboard).

I've had a quick trawl through the site and there is some interesting bits on there. Godd find - thanks.

Stefland

You're welcome - I don't write for kids/YA, nor have I been a boy but it seemed to me full of interesting stuff

Naomi, yes, I spotted that - I suppose to some extent it's the random nature of blogs. Maybe he'll come back to them. You could always email or post a comment asking them to expand on the things they missed, I guess.

Emma

Fascinating no?
I have eight year old twins ( one of each ) who have access to all the same toys, books, computor games etc and it still amazes me how much of what we chose to do is programmed by our gender.
My son, who is an avid reader, loves all the usual suspects - Alex Rider etc whereas my daughter will go for Jaquline Wilson etc
I still read to them every night and that's when I choose something a little left field and their reactions always interest me. They will listen to stuff they would never ordinarily pick for themselves - The Secret Garden, Black Beauty, The Bible ( I kid you not - the OT is full of guts and gore ).
HB x