Boys are generally a little less verbal than girls, so unfortunately the push for early reading puts a lot of them at a disadvantage. In addition, girls are more praise-oriented, and will work for approval. Boys don’t care about this as much.
My advice is to read aloud to your kids as much as possible. And for the boys, read to them about things they’re interested in...and then they’ll just get out there and do it.
One of the problems is that a lot of the subject matter that boys might like (adventure books, even old ones, such as the Hornblower stories) is now non-PC and many younger parents either don’t know these books or feel they shouldn’t read them.
I taught my boys to read in first grade because their school wasn’t doing the job. My husband and I read to them daily.
At one point, the boys were getting antsy waiting for him to come home from work, eat dinner, and to finally read Lord of the Rings to them. I told them that when they learned to read at that level, they wouldn’t have to wait on anyone.
That was a big incentive. They liked the Hornblower stories, btw.