Annie Cherry's August Blog Post 1:  How Reading Changed My Life, Anna Quindlen (Ballentine Books, 1998)

"In books I have traveled, not only to other worlds, but into my own."  Books allow us to see other worlds, but also to see a reflection of ourselves in the characters who inhabit them.  For this reason, I have found myself to be a bookworm from the moment I was first read to as a child!  From listening intently to my second grade teacher read aloud Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume, to reading The Great Gatsby in high school to ultimately choosing English as my major in college, reading has touched the entire span of my life.  I think of myself as a proud member of the "clan of the book".  I always have one book in progress, and many times more than one.  Given the opportunity, I can read an entire day away.  Reading is one of the most pure escapes that exists. You can imagine your own existence inside a world that is entirely different from any that you have ever known.  It is my greatest hope to inspire that love of books in the students that I teach.  

However, I fear that we may not be inspiring many when we tell them what books should interest them.  Just like any love of the arts, be it music, literature, dance, we find that love in what inspires each of us as individuals.  While you may find beauty in Bach or Beethoven, another may find it in the Beatles or The Rolling Stones, but that does that make either of you less of a music lover?  Of course it doesn't.  We need to allow students to find what type of book speaks to them. Students need the freedom to choose books that they WANT to read, not be forced to read books that do not interest them. If students can interpret meaning from a book, identify the character's motives, find imagery and symbolism, does it matter if that is from a historical novel, a sports biography or a work of fiction?  

Unless we start allowing some free choice in what student's read, I am afraid the "clan of the book" is going to begin diminishing in size. In my classroom, I am working very hard to allow children the ability to choose their own texts that interest them.  I have created a classroom library that the children can go to during center time each day.  There are a variety of text levels in this library, fiction,  non-fiction and a wide range of subjects.  I also provide the children to choose their own texts during their independent reading group time each day.  While I do limit the texts somewhat so that they can be managed at one table, I still provide texts for a variety of levels and interests.  It is my great hope that as they continue to have this free choice over their texts that they will be inspired to love books as much as my elementary teachers inspired me.  Hopefully we can recruit a few new members to the "clan of the book"!