How do you get your 12 year old to read?

Are there any programs at your local library that offer incentives for reading? Sometimes there are pre-teen/teen book clubs as well. I'd check out the local libraries and bookstores and see if you can find one. If he knows it includes social time/incentives...it may make him more interested. Also...try to find books that surround an interest of his. When I was growing up...we could only have 5 hours of tv per week. We usually tried to save it for the weekend. But, if we read more we could earn more tv time. That may be an option as well.

For my oldest son the gamer, he's 20 now, I subscribed him to Nintendo Power Magazine. His reading picked up. Now, for my younger son it was a little bit harder. He's a gamer too, but he won't read the gaming magazines. I thought a couple trips to the library or Barnes and Noble would help, but it didn't. My last tactic worked but... my husband was a little bit peeved but I totally disagree. My son LOVES Emeril and he spends a lot of time watching the food channel. So, I bought him a cookbook. In my defense, a lot of great chefs are men. My son and I have to get ingredients and cook the meal together. My son makes the list and we go to the store to get the stuff together. Than we have to cook! I have made a great sacrifice here. LOL I hate cooking!!!!!

I had one son who was slower than my other children to take to pleasure reading. I finally found a sports series he enjoyed, each is a chapter book based on a different sport, by Chip Hilton. He liked pirates so I found a pirate book. I just had to go to the library and peruse the shelves in search of things that I knew he enjoyed. Does he collect anything? There are books about all kinds of collectibles. Of course, there are comic books. Oh,my son would peruse the Guiness Book of World Records for hours and want to show me all the neat stuff he found in it! There is a really neat book called, "How things Work" that he might spend time reading. Does he like the Hardy Boy's books? Once I got my son reading, he enjoyed those. It may be attention span versus a dislike for reading...so try a book of short stories to see if he can make it through one story! Maybe a longer book overwhelms him? BEst of luck!

Well let's see. What does he like to read? If he is into hockey, get him hockey books. IF he is into sci-fi then what you got will work. Have you tried 'graphic novels' the expensive version of comic books. FIgure that some reading is better then no reading! It is tough, I went through this with my son, it got ugly, but he not learn to like to read from it. My best suggestion is to find out what he likes, make it useful and enjoyable. Have you tried bribing him - He reads 10 books and gets a video game type thing? or maybe a night out ....