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Reluctant Readers Unite!
Kids are raised to think there is
no success for an adult who didn’t embrace Catcher and the Rye or Animal
Farm in their high school years.
But here’s the thing—it’s the
adults in our lives pushing the reading. Elementary school teachers dutifully
check our weekly reading logs and give us that disdainful look when we hand
them an empty graph. Middle school teachers test our comprehension so often we
no longer understand what we were supposed to understand in the first place.
And analyzing the dreaded required reading in high school is enough to turn
even the most passionate reader off of books for the next twenty years. It
becomes a chore, like laundry or taking out the trash.
Don’t you wish we could choose our own books and review
them? A review is so simple:
This is what I read. This is basically what it was
about. This is what I liked about it. My favorite character was _____ because
____. I didn’t like _____ because ____.
If I could improve one thing in the story it would be _____.
Take that reading comprehension
tests! Reading can and should be fun. Do you enjoy war stories that depict what
it’s like to trudge through the jungle of Vietnam or hide in deserted buildings
in small town France during Word War II? Do you like graphic novels because
you’d rather not read that the character has a lazy left eye and wears a
studded collar when you can simply see it and get straight to the dialogue? Do
you like fantasy because it requires a suspension of disbelief or offers the
possibility of magic? Do you prefer a short book because you don’t have a lot
of time to read and by the time you get to the end of a long book, you’ve
forgotten the reason the character started their journey in the first place?
If you’re a reluctant reader, I encourage
you to try different types of stories and in different formats. Listen to a
book you download from the library to your iPod. Read an electronic book on a
Kindle or your phone. Talk to other readers about why they liked (or didn’t
like) a particular book. Often their passion for a story will help you decide
which books to read.
I can’t make your homework go
away or change it to be more fun. For that I’m truly sorry. However, if your
enjoyment of reading has been hampered by years of the wrong sort of reading, I
encourage you to try something different. There’s no better way to broaden your
world than to lose yourself between the covers of a book. Then write a review
on Amazon or Goodreads to say how you felt about it. Chances are if you do this
often enough even your boring homework will become easier.
Kai’s action packed Super Villain
Academy series is young adult speculative fiction and perfect for reluctant
readers. Book 2, POLAR OPPOSITES, is now available:
About the book:
The supers are balanced. All’s
well in the super world. Right? When dogs drag Oceanus away, Jeff learns the
supers are so balanced, they no longer care to get involved. The only one who
seems to care is Oci’s ex-villain, ex-boyfriend, Set. With Jeff’s own powers
unbalanced and spiraling out of control, he wonders if they will find Oci
before he looses control completely, and if they’ll find her alive.
Buy it:
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Whiskey Creek Press, Add on Goodreads
Kai Strand writes fiction for kids and teens. Her debut novel, The Weaver, was an EPIC eBook Awards finalist. Her young adult title, King of Bad, soared to the publisher's #1 spot in its second month and stayed on the Top 5 Bestsellers list for eight months. She is a (very lucky) wife and the mother of four amazing kids. The most common sound in her household is laughter. The second most common is, "Do your dishes!" She and her family hike, geocache, and canoe in beautiful Central Oregon, where they call home. Learn more about Kai and her books by visiting her website: www.kaistrand.com.
Connect with Kai:
2 comments:
Thanks for hosting me!
This is very delayed, but you are very welcome!
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