The Book Whisperer

Currently switching between two books, People of the Book: A Novel by Geraldine Brooks, the story of one book that unites people across cultures and time, and Inkdeath, the latest in Cornelia Funke’s popular Inkworld series, I am reminded of how much I love fiction books that include readers and books in their plotlines: Books that highlight the importance and joy of reading. Books that reveal the power of reading to transform your life. Books that provide social commentary about censorship. Books that show reading as a path out of ignorance and oppression. Books where reading heroes rule the day. In celebration of my favorite sub-genre, here is a list of my all-time favorite books about books and readers.

Elementary Readers

Aunt Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam Affair by Patricia Polacco: After a TV tower is installed in the town of Triple Creek, the residents stop reading. Aunt Chip, the town’s former librarian, finally decides to do something about it.

Souperchicken by Mary Jane and Herm Auch: Henrietta is a chicken who reads, and this skill puts her at odds with her aunts who wish Henrietta would act more like a chicken. When the farmer ships the aunts off to the soup factory, Henrietta must rescue her family by using her reading ability. You will love the message of this hilarious book, “Reading can save your life!”

Intermediate Readers

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke: Mo and his daughter Meggie love books, but Mo never reads out loud. After a stranger appears at their door, Meggie discovers that her father can read characters out of books and released several nefarious characters from the book, Inkheart, years before. Each book in the Inkworld series (Inkheart, Inkspell, and Inkdeath) contains innumerable quotes from classic books and gems from Funke about books and the people obsessed with reading them. The Inkheart movie, with Brendan Frasier as Mo, will be released this winter.

The Great Good Thing by Roderick Townley: Sylvie is a storybook princess, but she and the other characters only come alive when their book is opened by a Reader. Her book is slowly forgotten and Sylvie’s story is in danger of disappearing forever. Sylvie hatches a plot to get Readers to discover her book and embarks on an adventure that blurs the line between books and reality.

Middle School and High School Readers

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: Set during World War II with Death as the narrator, The Book Thief is haunting. Liesl, the title character, has lost her home and family. By stealing books, she grabs control of her bleak situation and finds solace and builds connections with other people through her love of words.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: Guy Montag, a fireman who burns books, inhabits a world that is every reader’s nightmare. Although Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit a half century ago, his examination of censorship and the fear surrounding books and the ideas in them, still resonates today.

Adult Readers

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon: Set in Spain in 1945, this breathtaking book follows the life of a teenage boy, who rescues an obscure book and falls into a mystery involving the book’s mysterious author.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde: Fforde deftly blends literary allusions and witty asides about books and readers throughout his science fiction novels starring Thursday Next, a Literary Division operative who fights to save characters erased from beloved classics. The Eyre Affair, the first in the series, follows Thursday’s efforts to stop an evil villain intent on altering the plot of Jane Eyre.

For the sake of symmetry, I restricted my list to eight books. Do you have any favorite books where readers, writers, librarians, or books take center stage?

Posted by Donalyn Miller at 2:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Hiding a magazine inside a book, reading the same page for 20 minutes, or holding a book upside down—it isn’t funny when you witness students reading like this in a classroom. Fake readers can often identify words and read them out loud, but fail to understand the material they are reading. By the time fake readers arrive in my sixth grade class, they possess coping skills that hide their inability to read a book and comprehend it. Many of these students have earned A’s and B’s in language arts classes in previous years and passed state achievement tests, but they still cannot read well.

How students could fake read and still succeed in school baffled me for a long time, until I realized that certain widely-used instructional practices actually foster fake reading. In her book, I Read It, But I Don't Get It, author Cris Tovani (who admits she fake-read her way through school) says, "Too many adolescent readers know how to fake read. They have become so good at playing the 'game of school,' that they've figured out how to get a good grade without getting the comprehension." So, what game are fake readers playing? Consider how these activities allow students to fake read:

Whole-class novels and literature circles—Fake readers wait for the class discussions about the assigned reading and pick up details about the book from the other students and the teacher. I remember such discussions from my days in school. The teacher pointed out the literary terms, provided text examples, and reinforced her interpretation of the book. It did not take an English degree to determine what would be on the end-of-unit test!

Round robin or popcorn reading—Fake readers are often good at decoding. When they are called on to read out loud in front of the class, they can word call their way through a short piece of text. Since round robin reading does not require readers to comprehend an entire reading selection, fake readers can, once again, depend on the understanding of other students and information provided by the teacher to build meaning.

Standardized test practice—Many students will tell you that they don’t even have to read the passages in standardized tests in order to successfully answer the questions. Years of instruction in test-taking tricks provides fake readers with a host of strategies they can use to narrow down or guess test answers without reading. Give your students a test passage and questions, without the multiple choice answers, and see how they do.

So, what can teachers do about it? How can we ferret out those students who fake read in our classes? Do we even care if students fake it as long as they can pass our classes and tests? The truth is that fake readers are getting a fake education and will never make the grade.

We must be careful when implementing any classroom activity that allows students to ride the comprehension coattails of other students (or us). Expect students to respond in writing to the material they read and provide evidence to support their opinions. Require students to independently read material most of the time. And provide instruction in strategies that improve students’ comprehension of authentic reading material, not just their test performance.

Finally, engage students in frank conversations about their fake reading behaviors. Let your students know that these behaviors are unacceptable and offer to help students overcome these habits. This dialogue will create a stronger reading community in your classroom—one built on a foundation of honesty and improvement instead of playing the game.

Posted by Donalyn Miller at 12:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)