Frightening the Children

Librarians don't really like to frighten children. As the school year ends, I wrap up with funny short stories, clever new picture books, and for the upper elementary children, nostalgic visits with Good Night, Moon, Corduroy, Harold and the Purple Crayon and Where the Wild Things Are, talking about the deep meanings in these treasures. We talk about all the wonderful books we've enjoyed this year. But every class that I teach gets a version of this sometimes scary talk:

You need to read every day this summer. Your brain is at one of those sensitive stages where it is soaking up vocabulary, syntax, metaphors and general knowledge. You can never get back a lost summer; you can never make up for weeks of not reading. I know it happens now and then that you might miss a day. Think of it this way: it's possible you might miss a day brushing your teeth. But you know what happens if you miss a week brushing your teeth: your breath stinks and you have to have a painful visit or two to the dentist. Just think about what happens to your brain if you miss a week of reading. One girl who takes piano lessons gave me a really good analogy: she worked hard and played a beautiful piece for her recital. Then she took a break from practicing. When she went back, not only had she not progressed, she had to re-learn her old recital piece because she had forgotten so much. Your teachers next year will be able to tell if you didn't read this summer. You don't want to start next year behind all the other students. Every year there are one or two students who let reading slide over the summer. I feel sorry for them because they've lost so much: not just their reading skills, which suffer, but also the joy, the hilarity, the excitement and the deep pleasure of a book-filled summer. Don't be one of those students.

This seems to freak them out suitably.

When the students return in the fall, they are expected to turn in their five summer reading post cards if they haven't done so already. These cards are not to "prove" to me or the teachers that they read; instead, they provide a conversation starter, a way to prove that talking about reading with other readers is powerful, exciting and compelling. It is a way of showing that our school has a culture of reading.

I realized today that I don't have any photographs of my own children reading when they were little. I asked the children I saw today to please send me photos of themselves reading -- it will make a strong statement in a display in the library or online. And let me know, on the comment button below, what your family is enjoying reading this summer!