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Growing Readers

"I can't stop reading this book! I've never liked a book this much before!" 
- Lexie, English 2, first period.

Beautiful, musical words to my English teacher ears! I grinned for hours after Lexie told me that last Friday, especially since the book she's referring to is my absolute favorite young adult book, The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. I've read it three times. Only three! I guarantee I'll read it again too. There's just something about those words in the most amazing combinations that grab me every time! My co-teacher, Mr. Barb, tells me it's because I am the main character, Lennie. Maybe. I've never had a sister. I played the flute rather than the clarinet. But in some ways, I guess I get her. And one day, when I grow up, I want to write like Nelson does. One day...


So selling this book to my sophomore readers is rarely a problem. I gush over it every time I talk it to them; I just can't help it! And finding a reader who loves it like I do simply makes me giddy.

 It also reminds me again why choice reading is so very important. Lexie wouldn't have read any book if I selected it for her. She would probably oppose most of the books taught in a traditional English 2 class. But, with this story, I've got her. Now, she'll follow me to book after book. She's certainly a selective and picky reader, so it'll take trying several each time for her to find the next option - like trying on clothes at the mall. But if I've got her with Lennie and her dead sister and her conflicting love for two boys, why can't I ultimately take her to Daisy and her "love" for two boys? It is possible. And, in the mean time, Lexie just may read 4 or 5 or 10 books this semester! Isn't that better than all those years students left my class having read only the two I picked (if they even read those)?

 Yeah, I doubt myself often as I work through this first year in several million where I'm teaching sophomores again. I worry that we are moving too slowly or covering too little. I search constantly for the right thread to weave my crazy ideas together for these kids. But in the end, I know we're doing something awesome. They are. They bug me for book talks regularly. One of them has already done one for us! And they dive into books each day with little prompting from me. They talk about them and get excited about them and seek recommendations when they finish. 

 They are becoming real, growing readers. And I love it!

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