In my unproveable anecdotal experience, the tendency towards gross-out books identifies the problem but misses the solution. The problem is that reading curricula tend to focus nearly exclusively on literature (novels, short stories, plays) and target the choice towards the students' reading comprehension level rather than their emotional comprehension level.
For example: Most 10th graders can read "Of Mice And Men," but how much are they getting out of it? Conversely, "Romeo and Juliet" has much harder words, but at least works at an emotional level they can understand.
Beyond that, there's usually a token 'biography' unit in a reading class or a short section on comprehending a science article, but almost never a full science, engineering, history, current events, etc. book assigned. Kids who have acquisitive minds are left out in the cold by reading Jane Austen -- in their minds, they're learning nothing useful at all.
"The Pearl" was required reading in high school. If that had been anywhere near my first book, I would have stopped reading for recreation forever. Love of baseball doesn't begin with the workout, why should reading.
// my book report was the subject of a parent / teacher conference
When I was a teenager I used to coach kids who had reading problems. My first action was to get them a library card and let them pick out something they were interested in; snakes and adventure stories were common choices.
And my advice to parents since has always been to encourage them to read anything they wanted first, the better a person can read the less difficult tedious books (school work, etc) becomes later. Reading is a skill, and like any skill it requires practice. The more enjoyable the practice, the more they'll do.
For example: Most 10th graders can read "Of Mice And Men," but how much are they getting out of it? Conversely, "Romeo and Juliet" has much harder words, but at least works at an emotional level they can understand.
Beyond that, there's usually a token 'biography' unit in a reading class or a short section on comprehending a science article, but almost never a full science, engineering, history, current events, etc. book assigned. Kids who have acquisitive minds are left out in the cold by reading Jane Austen -- in their minds, they're learning nothing useful at all.