In recent years, boys have been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. A Newsweek cover story focuses on "The Boy Crisis." Business Week writes about "The New Gender Gap." First lady Laura Bush leads a campaign to help boys do better in school.

The campaigns and headlines all have to do with reading. Boys aren't reading as well as girls, according to multiple tests, studies and reports.

Boys have trailed girls in national reading tests for many years. The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress results -- known as the Nation's Report Card -- show a gender gap in all grades tested in 2005: fourth, eighth and 12th. The gap was largest at 12th grade, where it was bigger than in 1992.

There are many theories on why boys lag behind girls in reading.

Two Vanderbilt University researchers say their studies show that girls have a significant advantage over boys on timed tests and tasks. They say it comes down to "processing speed."

"Processing speed doesn't refer to reaction time or the ability to play video games," said Stephen Camarata, one of the researchers. "Processing speed is the ability to effectively and accurately complete work that is of moderate difficulty."

Dr. Camarata is a professor of hearing and speech sciences and deputy director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development.

While neither boys nor girls have an IQ advantage over the opposite sex, girls have an advantage in school, the Vanderbilt research showed.

Boys and girls have about the same processing speed in preschool and kindergarten, but the girls' advantage steadily increases in elementary, middle and high school, Dr. Camarata said.

That advantage shows up in homework, for example.

"Schools seem to be assigning more homework and much of it is a lot of repetition" of problems and concepts, Dr. Camarata said. "Girls will do better at that."

Boys, he said, would probably do better "if you give them fewer problems and problems with a higher degree of difficulty."

While many research studies, in addition to his own, show learning gaps and learning differences between the sexes, "it takes a while for school curricula to catch up with the research," Dr. Camarata said.

Rita Bean, a University of Pittsburgh education professor who specializes in reading, said some blame the gap on cultural reasons "because you have boys in other countries who do as well as girls."

She said some view boys as more active and not as inclined to read. She said some schools are offering more reading material with content aimed at grabbing boys' interests.

"We really need to make sure that reading is valued in our schools," she said.

The reading gap between boys and girls starts early, said Rose Mary Mautino, assistant professor of education, director of the Reading Clinic and coordinator of the graduate reading program at Duquesne University.

She said boys who struggle with reading tend to end up becoming disruptive.

"So from then on, it's more thinking of them as disruptive rather than as struggling readers," she said.

Thomas Newkirk, author of the 2002 book "Misleading Masculinity: Boys, Literacy and Popular Culture," said by fourth grade, chapter books are difficult for some boys who then "get the message that they are not good readers."

"Seeking help is not part of the male culture," said Dr. Newkirk, a professor of English at the University of New Hampshire.

"There's also a mismatch between what boys are assigned to read and what they like to read," he said.

With an awareness of the gender gap in reading, he said, "hopefully we can do for boys with reading what we've done for girls in science and math."

Decades ago, girls were not expected to do well in math and science, but there has been a dramatic increase in women in medical, dental and veterinary schools.

The appearance on the literary scene of a boy-wizard named Harry Potter brought a bright ray of hope for boys. The Harry Potter books showed parents, teachers and librarians that many boys will read if the subject matter appeals to them.

"God bless J.K. Rowling," said Susan Claus, a librarian in the children's section of Northland Public Library in McCandless. Not only has the Harry Potter author turned boys on to reading, she said, "I think publishers are now looking at more books for boys."

The Harry Potter books have been a family reading experience for Sam Wilshire, 15, and his 8-year-old brother, Joel. Their sister, Colleen, 13, has recently started reading them, too.

"Sam devoured every Harry Potter book as soon as each one came out," said their mother, Stephanie Wilshire of Mt. Lebanon. Because Joel is too young to tackle big chapter books on his own, "I read the book out loud to him. It took us three weeks."

The family reading started when each child was an infant. Ms. Wilshire said she and her husband, Scott, both read to them.

"Sam did go through a phase in middle school where he wasn't reading books, but he was reading newspapers," she said.

Northland Library's Web site has reading lists for children, teens and adults. Northland, like many libraries, has a list with this title: "If you like Harry Potter, try these!"

For some boys, however, it's Harry Potter or nothing, said Jo Ellen Kenney, director of the Carnegie Library of McKeesport. It's "very infrequent" that a boy who was wild about Harry will move on to another author, she said.

"Harry Potter is a phenomenon, and that does not happen that often," she said.

"In my experience, boys are pulled more toward nonfiction. With younger boys, if a book has a snake on the cover, they'll pick it up," she said. The trick is to steer boys to books on subjects that interest them -- animals, trucks and sports are likely targets.

Books with "gory, slimy stuff" are popular with younger boys, said Georgene DeFilippo, youth services coordinator at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. And she agrees that boys of all ages prefer nonfiction.

"Sometimes boys are just too busy to sit down and read a book, especially if they are active and athletic," she said. "I saw that with my own sons."

While boys may not sit still long enough to read a long novel, "reading is reading. Get them a subscription to a magazine in their area of interest."

Don't worry if their recreational reading choices are "fluff fiction" like the Hardy Boys serial detective novels or books that parents and teachers might view as too young or too easy for their age.

"Kids need some books below their reading level," Ms. DeFilippo said. "It builds their confidence. They may even pick up a few new vocabulary words."

Though old-school librarians might not approve, even novel-length books written and illustrated in comic book style can help.

"They're called graphic novels, and they draw a lot of boys. The Carnegie Library has a large selection," Ms. DeFilippo said.