Build It and They Will Come

Reflections on Book Love by Penny Kittle I'm participating in not one, but two online discussions about this book. I read it as soon as it came out, but these groups are giving me time to reflect and shape my thinking. I don't know what I was thinking when I left most of my first classroom library in the junior high where I taught. Did I think high school students didn't need books? Did I think high school students only read classics? Did I think high school students didn't need easy reads? I don't know. But I left most of that library on the shelves for the next reading teacher ( bangs head on desk) . I moved into my new room at the high school, a room I shared with another teacher. She taught freshmen English in the mornings while I was in another room. I taught speech there in the afternoons. Roomie and I are very compatible, so the arrangement worked great. At some point, we began bringing our books into the room. And that is how the se