Book Love: Developing Depth Stamina and Passion in Adolescent Readers

About this book

I believe each of my students must craft an individual reading life of challenge whim curiosity and hunger and Ive discovered that it is not too late in high school to lead a non-reader to reading. Its never too late.Penny Kittle Penny Kittle wants us to face the hard truths every English teacher fears: too many kids dont read the assigned texts and some even manage to slip by without having ever read a single book by the time they graduate. As middle and high school reading declines college professors lament students inability to comprehend and analyze complex texts while the rest of us wonder: what do we lose as a society when so many of our high school graduates have no interest in reading anything? In Book Love Penny takes student apathy head on first by recognizing why students dont read and then showing us that when we give kids books that are right for them along with time to read and regular response to their thinking we can create a pathway to satisfying reading that leads to more challenging literature and ultimately a love of reading. With a clear eye on the reality of todays classrooms Penny provides practical strategies and advice on: increasing volume capacity and complexity over time creating a balance of independent reading text study and novel study helping students deepen their thinking through writing about reading building a classroom library with themes that matter to 21st century kids. Book Love is a call to arms for putting every single kid no exceptions allowed on a personal reading journey. But much more than that its a powerful reminder of why we became English teachers in the first place: our passion for books. Books matter. Stories heal. The right book in the hands of a kid can change a life forever. We cant wait for anyone else to teach our students a love of booksits up to us and the time is now. If not you who? For information about the Book Love Foundation which provides classroom libraries to deserving teachers and schools visit booklovefoundation.org.