CARPENTERSVILLE -- Who says boys don't like to read?
Community Unit School District 300 Superintendent Ken Arndt said he certainly does.
The first thing he reads every day is the cereal box. And he just joined a book club -- Liberty Elementary School's new boys-only book club.
Arndt helped kick off the club on Oct. 23, reading to third-grade boys at the club's first meeting.
The boys-only book club is an innovative way to bridge the national gap in reading skills between boys and girls, according to Liberty Principal Kristin Corriveau.
Both nationwide test scores and Liberty's recently received results from the Illinois Standards Achievement Test taken by students in the spring show boys typically score lower than girls in reading.
"Last year, the group that really stood out in the results was our fourth-graders," Corriveau said.
And that's a disparity research shows tends to increase as children get older, she added.
The idea for a boys-only book club came from third-grade teachers from both Liberty and Lincoln Prairie Elementary schools at last month's staff development meetings, according to the principal. Changing up teaching to meet the needs of small groups or individual students is part of Liberty's School Improvement Plan, and those meetings were focused on the different needs of male and female readers.
The club will meet Fridays during the school day, Corriveau said. Each week, a different male guest reader will read a book aloud, then discuss it with the boys.
Arndt said Liberty teachers will select the book, but his favorites as a young boy were mysteries and science fiction. Later, he discovered science fiction, and now he reads mostly journals and newspapers.
"I read quite a lot. I really do," Arndt said. "I'm also one of those where I have so many books to read it'll take me 10 years."
Future guest readers include District 300 Board of Education member John Ryan, H.D. Jacobs High School varsity basketball coach Jim Hinkle and Carpentersville Village President Ed Ritter. Corriveau said the school also plans to have male students from Jacobs come read to the students and "others who can inspire the boys to be readers."
Arndt said those boys need to realize how important reading is.
"There's a lot more to reading than just a novel," he said. "The cereal box, the newspaper -- those are some things we forget we have to read."
Corriveau said the third-graders' female classmates also will meet to read and discuss a book during the boys-only book club, but the same emphasis won't be placed on bringing in guest speakers.