How to Love your Summer Reading Assignment

It's a time of year every student and teacher looks forward to. Days are getting longer, shorts are getting, well, shorter, and Tank Top Tuesday is in full swing (did it ever really end?). Students are eagerly awaiting the days where they can spend their time as they please, completely free from school work of any kind.  Free that is, until they receive their summer reading packets.



Ah the dreaded summer reading assignment.  Even the most dedicated of students and enthusiastic of readers seem to dread its looming presence.  After all, summer is for freedom. Freedom from the oppression of "assignments" and "homework."  Right?  Not entirely. After all, what kind of librarian would I be if I didn't strongly disagree with the common notion that summer reading is purely a mechanism of torture inflicted by only the most malicious of teachers?

First of all, let me briefly list the reasons why summer reading is proven to help students be, well, better students. According to the California Library Association, summer reading is shown to:

• enhance reading skills that tend to drop off during summer months,
• provide a community for readers,
•  and allow an outreach tool for libraries (and who doesn't love libraries??).

By providing students the opportunity to collectively read a novel over the summer months, teachers are not only striving to eliminate the losses in learning that tend to occur over the summer months (let's face it, not everyone's reading War and Peace or The Complete Works of Shakespeare this June...), but they are also creating a culture of reading and learning.  When you, BVH student, return to school in August, you'll be ready to hit the ground running and start the year off with some awesome discussion of the book you chose. 

Still feel overwhelmed? 

Then consider this your summer reading survival kit: 

• If you have options, choose your book carefully; don't be that student who picks a title just because it has the fewest pages. You have to read it, so you might as well find something you enjoy!
• Read the back cover, prologue, summary, author bio, etc.  The more you know before you begin reading, the more likely you are to understand the book itself.
• Read through the assignment details carefully. If you have questions, email your teacher.
• DON'T WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE. Start in July. This way you will have plenty of time to finish, but the book will be fresh in your memory when you return to class. 
• Have an open mind!! Try to give your book a shot. Who knows, you might actually like it!

There you have it, my summer reading diatribe.  Have an amazing summer, BVHS....see you all in August!