About

First, a little bit about me.  I love books, and am an avid reader. I have a Bachelor's degree in Education and a Master's degree in Teaching with a concentration in Reading. I taught third grade in a middle-class suburban school and worked as a literacy aide in an underprivileged urban elementary school. I have worked as a private tutor for many years. I have worked with children of all ages, from babies to high schoolers. I also have two children of my own, ages 4 and 3. If there is one thing that I have learned from all of these experiences working with kids, it is that all children love a good story.

Unfortunately, our children are doing less and less reading of good stories. In fact, they are doing less reading in general. In part because of high-stakes testing, and because of (in my opinion) a fundamental misunderstanding of how children learn to read well, schools are slowly but surely taking the joy out of reading. Reading has become a subject to be drilled, not enjoyed. Kids answer basic questions, practice writing formatted answers, and read short texts that are not authentic, or even interesting to them. This is no fun! And because students are starting to view reading as a chore, they are doing less of it outside of school. There are far too many children out there who don't understand what it means to get lost in a good book. That is so sad!

My opinion is that instead of trying so hard to raise reading scores, we need to work on getting our children to love reading again. If they come to love reading, they will read more and move on to more challenging books... and the scores will follow.

As parents, there is so much you can do. Reading needs to start with the littlest of the little ones. We can, and should, read to our babies and toddlers every day. Preschoolers need to be read to and have the chance to explore books on their own. Let them "read" to you. Once your child knows how to read him/herself, read the same books. Either take turns reading to each other, or read independently and talk about the books later. (These should be real discussions, not Q&A sessions. Remember, you want it to be fun, not work!)

As your children get older, be sure to let them see you reading! Show them that it is not just a "school" thing, but that many people do it just because they want to. Talk to them about the books you are reading, and offer to read some of the books they're trying. You can read independently of each other, read together, or even just read to them. I don't care if they're in middle school and you think they're too old for that. They're not.

The key to getting kids to learn to love reading is to place the right books in their hands. That's where I come in handy. I read and review tons of books, and I will write about them all here. I'll fill you in on what the characters are like, what the story is about, who I think the book will appeal to, and I'll even try to include some discussion starters. (That way if you don't have time to read the book yourself, you'll still be able to have a great discussion about it.) For each book I review, I will provide a link to a store where you can purchase it, taking the work out of the process for you. I will only provide links to reputable companies, such as Barnes & Noble or Amazon, so you can rest assured your books will get to you safely.

Please take a few minutes to browse through my blog. I promise you won't regret it.

Happy Reading!