A Little Summer Reading...

The neighbor rang my doorbell today to inform me that a package had been delivered to my front door. One I had been expecting and waiting for... It was my copy of, Donalyn Miller’s book, The Book Whisperer; Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child. I am looking forward to reading this one!


I think the number one concern/question that I get from parents of my boy students is, "My son hates to read. How can I get him interested?"

I think this is a tough one to answer. For some boys it is finding the one thing they are interested in and run with it whether it is fiction or non-fiction. However, this not always does it. As much as I would love to get them interested in reading, I at the same time don't want to frustrate them or turn them off to reading by forcing them to read. It's like making them eat some sort of disgusting vegetable. You know it's good for them but just getting them to do it is a struggle.

And in came Graphic Novels... My boy book savior!

At the beginning of the last school year I had a box delivered to my classroom. I was owed some books from teaching summer school (took two years to get it) but it finally arrived. To my great surprise the box was filled with a variety of graphic novels. Something I really did not have in my library just yet.

My boys ate them up last year! Even my boys who previously showed no interest, started to read.

I had two boys who were sneaking reading during a spelling test. I would look over and there they were quickly putting the book down, as if I didn’t see it. Now these were two boys, who at the beginning of the year, wouldn’t be caught dead reading.

I am hoping this book will further give me some answers on how I can instill the love of reading in every child, not just my reluctant boy readers. I will be sure to give a review when I am finished reading. Don’t worry, it won’t take long.

P.S. I want to thank my PT friends for highly recommending this book. Reading is my next task after making crate seats, plexiglass art, and of course back to school supply shopping. I am not even going to mention VistaPrint.