School library circulation records: What do they reveal about boys\u27 reading preferences?

The purpose of this study was to examine what if any patterns emerge in the library checkout habits of elementary school age boys in consecutive grades and to compare them to common assumptions of which books boys prefer to read. A quantitative bibliometric method was used to analyze and count the circulation records of forty-four students over a three year period. The circulations to the boys in the study were compared to the circulations to the girls. Records revealed that on average, boys in third grade borrowed more books than the girls in the study, but girls selected more books than the boys in fourth and fifth grades. Both the boys and girls in the study borrowed substantially higher percentages of “stories” than “informational” texts. Boys selected more graphic novels and fiction chapter books in a series than girls did at all three grade levels examined