Monday, August 26, 2013

Reading Community

Last night I finished a book that I'd been waiting months to read, a sequel that friends and I had discussed and debated since we read the first book last November. This time I was the first one to read the advanced copy, so when I finished I tweeted the author's agent, a college friend, to tell her that I loved it, and we happily exchanged a half hour of tweets and direct messages about our mutual love of the books, our favorite lines, the endings to both books, and so on. We were a reading community of two.

Today, my reading community returns to me full time, full of students and parents and colleagues. The community never goes fully dormant, as evidenced by the many students who returned books to me on Friday, excited to share how much they'd enjoyed the titles. A few immediately checked out more books. A mom and I gushed about Maggie Stiefvater's books, and I told her The Dream Thieves is even better than The Raven Boys. Another parent came in, pointed at the classroom library and said, "I just love this."

This year, I know that I will kneel next to a student's chair, and we will talk about Manchee in hushed voices. We will debate Gale versus Peeta. They will gasp audibly when Sophie doesn't evacuate with the UN. They will sigh over Sidney Carton. Someone will ask me what I think it means when Clay follows Skye instead of going to class, but eventually enough students will read the book that they can discover the answer together. We will wish that Thisbe was a real place. We will wait anxiously for our local bookstore to deliver Allegiant on release day. Someone will spoil a book for me in their reading responses. Someone else will try to convince me to lend them the book that I'm reading while I'm still reading it.

I can't wait to get started.

Just Finished: rereading Pivot Point and reading Split Second, both by Kasie West. They're terrific. Split Second isn't out until February, but you can (and should) read Pivot Point now.

Shop Indie Bookstores

2 comments:

  1. I WAS FURIOUS about Manchee! hahaha :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is something every single kid wants to talk about.

      Delete