TGIF! is a weekly meme hosted by Ginger from GReads! where you can recap the weeks posts and respond to a question.
Required Reading: Which book from your school days do you remember reading & enjoying? Is there a book published now that you'd like to see in today's curriculum for kids?
There are two books in particular that I remember reading in school that I also enjoyed immensely. Both of the books are from Elementary School, oddly. After that required reading wasn’t so fun anymore!
The first book I enjoyed in school was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I always remember that my 3rd grade teacher read it to us; that was before the movies had come out and my teacher pronounced Hermione as “Her-mee-one.” It did lead me to becoming a devoted fan to the series!
My other favorite book I was ever introduced to through school is The Giver by Lois Lowry. I thought it was such a good book that I went out and read the two other books in the series right afterward and they are still some of my favorite books to this day. Oddly enough, I cannot remember the grade or the teacher that I had to read this for.
As for what I think should be required reading today in schools, I cannot give a specific book because I do NOT like or support required reading. I think that every person likes different kinds of books and will enjoy some books, and dislike others. By forcing a child or even a teen to read something they don’t have an interest in is just pushing them away from reading altogether. I think that children in schools should always have the option to pick their reading material and never be pushed into something they don’t want to read. Okay, this is me....stepping off my soapbox now.
This Week’s Posts at Leather Bound and Lovely:
What books did you enjoy reading in school? Feel free to leave me your links!
The Giver was a shocking read. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I won't deny that it was quite disturbing...
ReplyDeleteI might need to read it again. I don’t remember too much beyond the basic plot! I just remember loving it, haha!
DeleteYour blog is gorgeous!!! I'm a new follower! We didn't get to read The Giver when I was in school because I think it came out when I was like 10 years old. So the schools I went to didn't want to give it a chance. But I only WISH that they let us read that in school!!
ReplyDeleteNew follower here :)
xo,
La Toya (La Toya, Literally.)
Thank you so much for the compliment and the follow!
DeleteI Love Harry Potter books! Though I did read books before, but my real love for novels started with Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone! :)
ReplyDeleteAs for your viewpoint on required reading, I too think that kids should be allowed to choose their own books and genres. Otherwise it's just a task- not something that's interesting.
Here's my response-
http://bookwormreviews9.blogspot.in/2012/02/tgif-greads-1.html
I hear you about Harry Potter beginning your love of novels! I sometimes wonder if I would be as avid a reader as I am if Harry Potter had never been a part of my childhood.
DeleteI agree so much about how reading can become a task for non-readers if they don’t have the chance to pick their own books. It’s one of those topics that makes me sad because I believe anyone can be a reader if they found something they liked. For example, my dad NEVER read for as long as I have known, he claimed to hate reading, and was actively against reading for enjoyment. One day though, I convinced him to try The Hunger Games and he loved it! Ever since, he reads about 2 books a week! It just took him finding the kind of books he liked.
I originally read Harry Potter because our school was having a year where each student had to try and read one million words, so I started reading Harry Potter.
ReplyDeleteCheck out my TGIF
I read Harry Potter with an ESL Class. They loved it so much, I changed my lesson plan for the year to center the Harry Potter books.
ReplyDeleteOh, Harry Potter is my all-time favorite series! I read it when I was in fourth grade and completely hooked up! Harry Potter is amazing and I'm so sad that it's finally over! Can't wait to read more books from JK Rowling!
ReplyDeleteAwesome post, Darlene! <3
I have The Giver which is still nicely wrapped in it's shrink wrap. LOL. Haven't come round to reading it yet.
ReplyDelete