Does he need tales of derring do? Photograph: Piyal Adhikary/EPA
Of course, Alan Johnson is right: everyone should read more, because reading is the key to education and then to work. But I'm not sure he's right about how to get boys to read. He wants a new generation of fighting, spying and sporty working-class heroes to attract boys to books.
Teen fiction, however, already has a great many of such "modern, relevant role models". No one would argue that a heap of Anthony Horowitz, Charlie Higson, Melvin Burgess and the rest in every school would be a bad idea. But most schools have had these for some time.
It is also a simplistic view of reading to think that everyone is looking for a story of someone like themselves. How do we know that Mr Johnson's "working class boys" want to read about other working class boys? Harry Potter and Alex Rider (star of Horowitz Stormbreaker books) are as public school educated as can be, while the young James Bond is at no less exclusive an establishment than Eton.
Nor do characters need to be action heroes: questioning, anxious boys such as David Case, hero of Meg Rosoff's Just in Case, or troubled boys such as Stanley Yelnats in Louis Sachar's Holes may, in their different ways, prove to be just as much of a draw.
Reading, especially for children and adolescents is surely as much about escapism and widening your horizons as it is about reality... hence the rise - and rise - of fantasy.
So, what do you think is the key to getting boys to read?
