Reading

Ever since I got the job of school librarian starting next school year, I've started to think about reading, about what I read, and how much time I spend on it, about how to encourage young people to read, to help them develop a passion for books. In this day and age of computers, internet and video games that could be a tall order. Tonight on BBC 4 Michael Rosen (UK poet) was talking about how children are reading less than ever before. I'm sure that is true to a certain extent but equally, I'm sure that people have been saying that same thing since visual media first came on the scene. Then again, how many years has it been since we had universal education in the west and books were readily available to everyone. Just a thought!

I have been examining my reading habits as a precursor to looking at reading at school. I read the Guardian each day but not cover to cover and sometimes not even entire articles. This last week I read 2 books but that is the exception. I want to start reading literature aimed at adolescent readers in order to catch up on all the reading I haven't done in that genre in the last 10 years. I have a lot of ground to catch up.

Where to start! I am taking advise from our lower school librarian who was a middle and high school librarian before coming to our school. We'll see after that.