I bought this book at my son’s school book fair and everyone in the household (me plus the three males living here) has read at least portions of it.  (For those even more behind the times on their reading lists than me, GUYS WRITE FOR GUYS READ edited by Jon Scieszka (2005), is a compilation of stories/memories from 90 male children’s writers and illustrators, including our owndavidlubar). The project is part of Scieszka’s literacy initiative designed to encourage boys to read.

It’s a great book.  Now that I’ve finished all the stories, I plan on taking it to the library and looking up some of these writers’ books so I can expand our household reading horizons.

But . .

This book makes me wonder what a GALS WRITE FOR GALS READ compilation would look like.  Guys’ childhood experiences are by no means universal (okay, maybe farts are a common thread) yet there’s this underlying “guy code” in the book that makes every male a member of the club. Even those boys who weren’t classic guys’ guys knew what was expected of them, and while some didn’t speak the language, they all understood it.    

Would it be possible to have a gal edition of this book?  Do gals have a universal language?  Universal expectations? 

 While society does place all sorts of expectation on females, females have much more leeway than males in terms of sports (athletic girls are admired but it’s no big deal to be unathletic); the cars they drive (Hummers or VW Beetles are equally acceptable); the clothes and colors they wear (pants or dresses are fine, black, brown,  pink, purple – every color in the spectrum is okay); make-up (women are free to wear it or not but men are denied one of society’s greatest inventions – lipstick!).  In terms of careers, plenty of men are still intimidated by female doctors, scientists, and race car drivers, but there isn’t a majority unspoken opinion that a woman embarrasses herself by being, say, an astronaut.  However, there is a prevalent attitude that men shouldn’t be nurses or dancers.

I grew up with two brothers and two sisters.  I was a “tomboy” who threw a better spiral than most boys on the playground but also played with dolls.   I climbed trees and sledded, built forts, pushed my cat around in a baby buggy, played dress-up, had pinecone fights, sang into my hairbrush along with the radio, wore lip gloss, laughed at fart jokes, read books.

Maybe my childhood is a representative snapshot of what a GALS WRITE FOR GALS READ story would offer: girls exploring different interests and attitudes.        

And perhaps the GUYS WRITE participants would disagree with me, but as I read their stories I wished for a little more flexibility in their lives.  Opportunities for them to be true to the real guys inside, whether that meant jumping off barns, composing musicals, designing clothes, or Xeroxing their butts. 

Either way, I absolutely want that flexibility for my guys.