It's all Greek to me! The reluctant reader.

 My recent travels in Europe had me not only thanking the stars that I could read some French and that by mashing French and English together and guessing a few words that kind of looked like French or English you could usually find something to eat off a menu or figure out how to purchase a rail ticket in most countries. The exceptions to this rule on my route being Bulgaria and Greece where the equivalent to having someone change all your word documents into wingdings font (pencile airplane mail box..... open mail box) and you lose all ability to read. This made me reflect on my childhood lack or reading skills

I was an odd combination of a reluctant reader growing up. I had a high vocabulary but could not easily decode words. My brain could talk fast and form complex sentences at a young age. I was always included in adult conversations and helped my parents entertain their friends from a very young age. When you have been discussing what you saw on the news with your parents, as well as things like investing and insurance and then you are put in front of ”The fuzzy bunny book" you really have no interest in it. It always seemed like an awful lot of work to wreck your brain to figure out the words and then end up with something so below even what was average for your age level the experience was mind-numbing. Why would anyone go through all this effort when they can just speak to people over the phone or in person? The sad thing was I just wasn't at the right reading level for my age and the content seemed like way to much work for a whole lot of things that were geared at much younger people.

My parents were called in because of it in grade 4 I was much below the rest of my class and because I had so many good friends it was really no trouble to get into a group of people and figure out an assignment, the teacher always clearly explained what they wanted to I didn't really have to read it. It was not until grade six that I was actually forced to learn to read because it became more effort to not read then it was to start decoding things. At this point I had the Babysitters Club thrown at me and promptly threw it back everything about the books threw me off from the pastel color  covers to the prospect of reading about the daily social interactions of girls. I'm a girl I do girl things, why should I have to read about them? Then again this is coming from the weird kid who from a very young age told their parents that Inspector Gadget should be reported to child and family services if he was a real person because he always left Penny and Brain alone in the cartoon episodes.

The other option of the day was Goosebumps. The problem with Goosebumps is that I was an absolute wuss when it came to scary stories, but after coming to the realization that the books were really not all that scary, I managed to choke down the books at an insanely slow speed enough to learn to read. The thing that I think kept my morbid fascination with the books was being continually amazed at how stupidly unable the characters were at making decisions when it came to their own safety. Book One in the series I thought had a clever plot twist, and Monsterblood sold me which was volume 3, and kept me reading the books but alas even the monster blood sequels with in the series were never as good as book 3 there was just something about the lack of control the character had over the events in Monsterblood that them seem less stupid and two dimensional then most of the character in the Goosebumps series.

I liked reading series books more for the collection aspect of things, after I finished a book I got to add it to my collection. I always had a pack rat personality when I was a kid and in the end it was that, that kept me reading to add to my collection. My reading level improved but my speed did not. I've always been “built for comfort and not speed”. I hated reading in class because everyone would flip the pages faster than me and I found it distracting and irksome. It was about this time I came across a book in my basement that I had bought at a 3rd grade book sale Into the Land of the Unicorns by Bruce Colville. I almost didn't read it because it seemed way to "girlie" a big white unicorn on the front walking through a dark silver forest. I was afraid it would turn out to be a romance novel *gasp and horror* I avoided reading any kind of romance book until I was about 18 and am still loath to admit that I do enjoy a good/bad romance. It's just not good for a grade 6 tom boy image you know?

Well I was madly interested in animals at the time and being that the back of the book seemed to have no visible love interest I could always have read it and then if ever questioned by the imaginary image police I could claim I had no way of knowing it was a love story if it turned out to be one. After reading that book I wanted to read. I had a love for fantasy adventure books, reading became a love, joy, and past time. By the time I hit grade 7 my reading speed was only slightly slower than average and my ability to read and deal with vocabulary slighting higher than my classmates.  One summer made all the difference. I had quickly realized that larger books were vastly more interesting and was willing to put in the time to get them read. Over the summer I could read as slow as I wanted and I didn't have to compare myself with anyone.

At the age of 16 I discovered that comic books were not just men running around in tights and had a renewed reading addiction (and I do say addiction being that some of my trips to the shop cost me over $300 ah the days where you had a job and didn’t pay rent).

 I think I will be able to relate to kids who don't want to read as a librarian. I've experienced some of the difficulties of reading myself.

1. Learning to read is hard.

2. People assume sometimes that because you don't read well you have a limited vocabulary and lack ability to understand plots.

3. Young reading material seems so stuck in pink and blue gender roles that it can be unappealing to people who are more green or purple or even orange. I still liked stuff about girls as a kid but was more interested in books where the female character excelled over her male counter parts or proved herself a valued equal rather than stories that just involved female oriented social interactions. I pretended to like green books which would be more geared at boys but contained love stories or aspects of plot a girl would like... but if the book did not have a central female character I usually lost interested in my reading at a young age. When I actually started reading in grade 6 I liked books with male lead characters.

Currently in class we have gone over reasons why kids are reluctant to read, and in general I think that more than one reason usually apply for any given reluctant reader. I would be interested in knowing what some of the best approaches are to helping reluctant readers? We talked a bit about the difficulty with boys being concidered more acive and having less selection, but what are some of the ways to help a reluctant reader move past the reluctance quickly? Giving them a choice is a good start but so many books to choose from can be a bit daunting. Knowing which type of reluctant reader you have is also a good step toward helping them but how do you assess what problems a kid is experiencing as a reader? In a school library you may have more chance to assess the child or ask a teacher but in a public library it seems like it would be a great challange to sort out what type of problems a kid may be experiencing. 

There is a book that sparks for everyone. It's like the first love of your life in a way and some of us have to go through more pages than others to find it. Hopefully I spent enough time with the pages that didn't spark to relate to someone who hasn't found their first book yet. Your real first book is the one you remember always. I couldn't tell you what the first book I ever read was and I only remember kids books that I thought were stupid but I do remember the first one I loved.  Hopefully having gone through more pages than most to find it, I can remember how hard it is to learn to read and help those who are reluctant in reading find what is right for them. The three challenges I listed are only some of the challenges young readers can face, but most of us do learn to read but the fastest way to learning to read, is loving to read… and yes I still read books about unicorns if only for the nostalgia of it.