While these suggestions were intended to increase parental access to schools and acknowledge the lived realities of families, one effect was to increase the regulation of families, along with the expectations for parental involvement. This echoes the message of the family literacy panel described in the introduction to this chapter: Feeling overwhelmed? Try harder. Another effect of the reliance upon mothers’ domestic literacy work, was the realization among some social commentators that literacy had become too associated with women. Phillips, in Watiuk (2001, p. 2), called this the “feminization of reading,” and the proposition that “boys see reading as a girl thing” (Hall, 2002, R5) was offered as an explanation for why on average boys scored lower on reading tests than girls. Shapiro, quoted in the CanWest article, “Boys Need to See Male Role Models” (Hall, 2002) explained that when male teachers are present in the classroom there doesn’t seem to be a negative impact on boys’ literacy. Consequently, Shapiro advised, “where possible, have the man do the lion’s share of the leisure reading. There’s no evidence that it will make a difference in the end, but it can’t hurt” (Shapiro, in Hall, 2002, R5). One response to the need for male literacy role models was for the Vancouver Public Library to launch a literacy program for fathers and “other male figures, like uncles and brothers” (Hall, 2005, R5). While including fathers in their children’s literacy support is laudable, it is interesting that mothers “and other female figures” do not require a special literacy program. It is also interesting to consider why fathers and “other figures” don’t attend existing family literacy programs.

In the CanWest Global newspaper’s Raise-A-Reader campaign on September 25, 2003, the importance of male role models for boys’ reading was a strong theme. Vancouver Canuck’s hockey player Trevor Linden was photographed reading to children at the Canuck Place Children’s Hospice. Inside pages featured photos of Canuck’s coach Marc Crawford reading to schoolchildren, and player Brendan Morrison shared that when he is not on the road, “I sit down with him all the time and go through his books” (Mason, 2003, p. A15). Other articles in the same feature discuss the importance of library story times for young mothers, and the contribution of English second language classes to helping new immigrant mothers read to their children, though these mothers do not feature in the full page spread photos and interviews.