My wife is doing the work. Her coworker said he makes his daughter read at home 30 minutes / day. She can read what she wants...so long as it's prose fiction. He said he loved reading at her age so he doesn't know what the problem is.

My wife explained *what the problem is*.

Just in case people see this who don't know:

* Magazines (and zines!), audiobooks, fact books, graphic novels, online fan fiction, etc. are ALL good for reading skills/love.

* Don't force reading time. Have lots of reading they might like available but they choose when/what.

Do YOU as an adult like being told that you have to read at a certain time? No, it's a treat. What you CAN do is have some family reading time where you model how much you fucking love to sit down and read and if they want to hang out, sip tea you made, and read they can.

I can't prove it but beyond format prejudice, I believe the main reason boys tend to lose more interest in reading compared to girls (and girls lose interest too) is that adults put sexist expectations on kids in terms of what they both encourage and discourage for reading.