Why Are Boys Falling Behind On Reading?

The Book Case

ABC News

Fiction, Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.7 • 913 Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2026

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Book Case is largely about talking to authors, yes, but we believe that reading is critical for everyone. We believe it is most important for kids, that raising readers is one of the most important duties a parent can perform. But we read a study recently that said boys reading scores are lower than girls. And not just in the US, boys reading scores are lower internationally as well. Why? What is the key to teaching boys to read, and to love it for life? We are joined by Dr. Sean Reardon at Stanford author of the study as well as Dr. Nakia Townes President of Accelerate, which is studying how to turn and research into action for our kids. Finally, we are joined by Brayden Piper and his mom Lauren, who have been helped by Accelerate’s efforts to elevate boys love of reading. We had a piece on Good Morning America a few weeks ago that touched on these issues, but in this podcast we take a deep dive. Join us for this important discussion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	9-1-1, where is the emergency?
0:02.7	It's the middle of the night in a small town on the Jersey shore.
0:06.7	Someone reports an abandoned car on a bridge.
0:10.0	A search gets underway for the missing driver, 19-year-old Sarah Stern.
0:14.9	Is it a missing person? Is it a suicide?
0:17.6	At this point, nobody knows.
0:19.6	Old friendships, buried cash, and a sinister plot that was once pitched as a movie, plays out in real life.
0:29.0	I'm Jiu Chang from 2020 and ABC Audio.
0:33.4	Listen now to Bridge of Lies, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:46.3	Music Listen now to Bridge of Lies, wherever you get your podcasts. Well, hello, listeners.
0:47.9	Nice to see you again or know that you're there again.
0:51.8	I'm Charlie Gibson, the second-damed part of the bookcase with Kate and Charlie.
0:57.2	And I'm Kate Gibson, and we are so thankful for all of you tuning in for the first time,
1:02.4	or all of you who are tuning in weekly.
1:05.1	We're just thankful for listeners.
1:06.7	We love what we do, and it's nice to have you here.
1:09.7	Indeed, that's true.
1:10.9	This is an important podcast.
1:12.8	Often we say we have a great author, we have this, we have that, but this is important.
1:16.8	We have done a number of these podcasts over the years on strategies to get kids of all ages, off screens and into books.
1:25.9	There's nothing more maddening to me than to see a family
1:28.4	table at a restaurant with the parents and their kids all on their phones. But screens are not
	...

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