3 Books to Support the Development of a Reading Community at the start of the school year
By Nicole Marie
Creating a thriving community of readers is one of the most important things we can do as educators, as it provides a foundation for students to willingly and purposefully develop reading practices and lifelong literacy habits.
As most of us know, reading communities are not created overnight. They involve getting to know students as readers, cultivating enthusiasm for reading, ensuring access to diverse texts, matching students to ‘just right’ texts they want to read, and explicitly teaching reading routines, behaviours and practices, among other things.
Today’s post gives an overview of a range of texts you can use in the classroom that can help support the development of a reading community by sparking enthusiasm for engaging with texts and reinforcing genuine reasons for reading. Enjoy!
1. A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader, edited by Maria Popova and Claudia Bedrick
This gem of a book is a collection of letters to young people about why we read and what books can do for us. These letters have been penned by 121 famous readers, writers, thinkers and ‘doers’ such as Ursula Le Guin, Judy Blume, Jerome Bruner, Richard Branson, Jane Goodall, Marina Abramović, Alain de Botton, and Neil Gaiman, to name a few. With each letter (or comic, in some cases!) comes a beautifully illustrated image from a well-known artist (Oliver Jeffers, Jon Klassen, Shaun Tan are all contributors here, among others).
While some might look at this book and think that it’s ‘preaching to the converted’ (i.e: Established book lovers and adults who put books in children’s hands), there is much here to prompt lively discussion and reflection about our reasons for reading and the enrichment and possibilities that reading a good book can bring. See the points below for some suggested ideas about how to use it in the classroom.
Suggested ideas for use in the classroom:
Read aloud/share/display short quotations from the collection or whole letters that capture genuine reasons for reading and what reading can do for us
Complete a read aloud of one short quote/letter at the start of each lesson and ask students to reflect upon it or discuss
Guiding students to use some of these letters as a springboard for comparison with their own experiences and to reflect on what conditions and support they need to help create positive reading experiences for the year. You can ask questions like, “If your reading experiences have been like the one expressed in this letter, what helps you to have a positive reading experience like this? What needs to happen/be in place for you to enjoy reading and gain some value from it?” and “How has your experience with reading been different from the one expressed in this letter? If you’ve had negative experiences with reading, what’s ‘gotten in the way’ for you when it comes to having a good experience?” You might want to follow up with creating an anchor chart detailing a list of conditions that function as ‘Helps and Hindrances’ that either support or ‘get in the way’ of students’ positive reading experiences. This can help students communicate their needs and can help inform whole class expectations for a reading community (eg: “What do we need to do to set ourselves up for positive reading experiences in this classroom for the year?”)
Ask students to write their own letter to a reader who is younger than them or to themselves, either reflecting on existing positive reading experiences (eg: What the best reading experience is like/does for me) or imagining what they hope good experience for them could be, with illustrations. Some students might want to start an illustration first and then add text.
Some quotes:
“To read a book and surrender to a story is to keep our humanity alive” (Helen Fagin, professor and Holocaust survivor, p.58)
“To read is to experience the most humanizing of surprises: that someone else’s far away mind has given rise to words with their own distinct voice and color and sound, and yet their words touch and echo and mirror places deep inside you.” (Krista Tippett, author and radio host, p.182)
“A library isn’t just a collection of books. It’s a portal to anywhere you want to go in the universe. Go explore!” (Sylvia Earle, oceanographer, explorer and conservationist, p.114)
“To read is to expose a vulnerability, for at least a brief moment, to surrender to another perspective, to bring it inside yourself and try it on” (Aaron Koblin, digital media artist, p.112)
“Reading broadens the mind, heightens the senses, and enlivens the spirit. It gives us hope, drive and inspiration. Make it a habit, give it unrestricted access to your imagination, and you will be presented with opportunities and possibilities beyond your wildest dreams” (Richard Branson, entrepreneur and businessman, p.102)
“As an adult, I’ve come to realize that life isn’t about finding yourself. It’s about creating yourself. Books are clay for exactly that” (Tim Feriss, author and investor, p.130)
“When you love the same books as someone else, it’s like sharing a secret without saying a word” (Maud Newton, author, 134)
“Cherish your curiosity. It is your questions that will shape you. And books, the kind you love, will continuously provoke your mind and heart to grow with a deeper sense of understanding of yourself and how we all fit into this crazy, incredible world” (David Delgardo, visual strategist for NASA, p.154)
That’s why books were invented: so our souls could talk to each other. Books help our inside selves meet up and become friends, so we can find our way together through life. That’s why we love them so much (William Powers, journalist and research scientist, p.164)
Top picks:
Letters to reinforce reasons for reading and the power of books:
Rebecca Solnit - Emphasises the possibilities of reading (p.36)
Anne Lamott - Why read? (p.254)
Lucianne Walkowicz - A poem about the power of books (p.54)
Helen Fagin (Holocaust survivor) -A powerful reflection on her experiences smuggling books into a secret school with for Jewish children in Poland’s WWII ghettoes (p.58)
Shonda Rhymes - Outlines his books make you feel less alone (p.62)
Roz Chast - An illustrated comic outlining various reasons for reading (pp. 70-71)
Naomi Wolf - Why read? (app.94-95)
Sylvia Earle -Books as portals to the universe (p. 114)
Felicia Day - What reading does for the brain (p.116)
Jerome Bruner - Books and the imagination (p.118)
Meehan Crist - Why read? (p.220)
Letters empathising with ‘less than ideal’ reading experiences or the desire to abandon a book:
Amanda Palmer - Outlines why it’s okay to abandon a book (p.46)
Mariska Hargitay - A thank you letter to books from an initially reluctant reader (p.146)
Letters outlining the influence of books and/or characters on people’s lives:
Ariel Schrag - An inspirational account of how reading and writing are connected (pp. 94-95)
Rebecca Mead - Read to challenge yourself (p.180)
Marina Abramović - The importance of finding the right book for you (p.188)
Steve Heller - Books fight ignorance, the dangers of censorship (p.206)
Caroline Paul - An entertaining listicle detailing the life lessons she’s learned from reading (p.226)
Yo Yo Ma - Characters that act as ‘heroes’ or role models (p.240)
2. The Book That Made Me, edited by Judith Ridge
You might have heard of the ABC series Books That Made Us. Before that, there was the 2016 book The Book That Made Me, a collection of short personal stories from thirty-two of Australia and New Zealand’s most acclaimed writers (including Markus Zusak, Ambelin Kwaymullina, and Ursula Dubosarsky, to name a few). Each personal story includes a reflection on the book/s that had an enduring impact on each author and their life.
The collection of personal accounts is peppered with black and white illustrations by Shaun Tan, which include musings about what books mean to different people, drawn from a series of interviews with random strangers about why they read.
This collection also contains a helpful list of all the books referred to in the collection, along with a brief biography of the authors who contributed to the collection.
*Please note: Some of these personal stories might need to be screened for age-appropriateness depending on the year level you teach.
Suggested ideas for use in the classroom:
As a reference for literature circle or book club selections
As a supplementary/background text that’s part a novel study focused on one of the books mentioned in the collection
Explore quotes, excerpts and passages from the text to inspire reflections about why we read and what books can do for us
Use some of these accounts to prompt discussion about books that have had profound effects on our lives
Use some of these personal stories as mentor texts for personal reflective writing
Use one of the reflective stories and/or images as inspiration for writing a ‘letter to your English teacher’ at the start of the year with a twist (ie: about the ‘book that made me’)
Some quotes:
“…this is what Melina Marchetta offered me: a lightbulb moment, illuminating crevices and corners of my imagination and creativity that had been kept in the dark…suddenly I realized that my own experiences just might matter” (Randa Abdul-Farah, p.8)
“They’ve asked me to write about the book that made me. Only I can’t, because the story that made me, the one that flows through my mind and heart and veins, isn’t in a book. It’s a lot older than that…it is the tale of an ancient people in an ancient land…the Dreaming Ancestors created a reality where everything lives and everything connects in an ever-moving network of relationships. This world is more than what can be seen, perhaps even then what can be felt, and in such a place, it is wise to be respectful of the life around you. Everything has a story, and it is impossible to determine the millions of ways in which the tales of the different shapes of life who inhabit this earth intersect with our own” (Ambellin Kwaymullina, pp. 65-67)
“[I] always seem to come back to picture books as a perfect vehicle for creating very simple, complex little worlds that everyone can enjoy and easily revisit at different times in their life” (Shaun Tan, p.43)
“Story is gold. Whether you read it, hear it as a yarn, in a song or melody, see it in a photo, canvas, in the sand, on a cave wall, in sculpture, or on the screen, it doesn’t matter. Story is gold” (Sue McPherson, p. 202)
Top Picks:
Ambellin Kwaymullina’s reflection on the importance of story, place and identity, focused on the Dreaming and the Western Australian Pilbara
Will Kostakis’ personal anecdote about how his frustration with reading the novel Hatchet inspired him to write his own original stories, which in turn, inspired him to become a writer
Randa Abdul-Fattah’s reflection on not being able to see her own experiences in the Anglo-centric fiction she read as a child and teen, before reading Looking for Alibrandi that “spoke to [her] life” and inspired her to find her writing voice and believe that her experiences mattered
Sue McPherson’s honest account of “battling through the written word” in primary and secondary school, before developing into an avid reader and writer
3. Dear Fahrenheit 451: A Librarian’s Love Letters and Break-Up Notes to Her Books, written by Annie Spence
This book, as the title suggests, is a collection of a librarian’s love letters and break-up letters written to the books she has come across in her life. The librarian in question is Annie Spence, a librarian who at the time of publication worked for the Michigan Library.
Her letters are thoughtful, entertaining, clever, often hilarious, and moving. Although it should be noted that some letters need to be screened for profanity, sexual references and age-appropriateness, depending on the year level you teach.
Suggested ideas for use in the classroom:
As mentor texts for writing love letters to books students have enjoyed
As mentor texts for writing ‘break-up’ letters to books they would like to abandon
As creative written reader responses to be shared and enjoyed
Top picks:
Love letters:
Miss Marple series
The Fledgling
Matilda
The Diary of a Young Girl
The Children’s section of the public library
Abandonment letters:
Anna Karenina
The Twilight series
…What books would you recommend to help create a thriving community of readers?
