Books in a plain brown wrapper

How judging a book by its ‘girlie’ cover is putting boys off reading – Times Online:

Attempts by parents and teachers to persuade boys to read more are being undermined by publishers whose insistence on using lurid “Barbie” pink covers on books is turning away young male readers in their droves.

Wendy Cooling, of Bookstart, a charitable programme that encourages children to read, said she was dismayed that publishers were now using gender-specific marketing for certain children’s books. Whereas girls were not put off boys’ books, which tended to have primary colours, few boys dared to be seen reading a pink or purple book, even though they might otherwise enjoy it.

“Publishers are getting the covers wrong. Some stories are perfectly attractive to boys, but they are needlessly put off,” she said,

It says something very unpleasant about our society when the marketing people working for publishers feel they need to make their products outward appearance in a way geared towards attracting the attention of a single gender.

I know that when I was ten or twelve, I might have found it acceptable to read a pink or lavender book in my room with the door locked, but I wouldn’t have been caught dead carrying it around at school or other places.  The other boys already called me queer (ok, so they were right about that) and I would have sooner died than give them more ammunition.

I now read more on my Palm Treo than I ever thought I would.  As a result, book covers mean far less to me since I do not see them when I sit down to read one tiny screen at a time.