The Literate Teacher's Manifesto

You never forget your first time.  Oh, the magic, and the excitement, and the WONDER of it all.  I will never get over the Harry Potter  series.  I have students who have told me in the past few weeks (as they have been selecting their first independent reading books) that they made it through two or three, but they never finished the series, and I. Am. Horrified.  How anyone could stop in the middle is just beyond me!  JK Rowling's story arcs in the series are just so inspiring and creative, taking all of the best bits of the hero's journey and completing them for not just one character, not just two characters, but COUNTLESS characters in varying degrees.   When the series was released, and the hubbub and the furor over the books began in earnest, I was in college. I told myself that clearly this was a gimmick, and I would never read those silly books.  A boy wizard? Why does anyone even care?  However, fate and my Mythology profes...

I am so over series novels. I blame JK Rowling for this phenomenon. It used to be possible to go to the library, pick up a novel, read it, get to the end, and be done. Now, it feels like every time I pick up a new book, it's making a lifetime commitment!  Booksellers: Do you promise to love, cherish, and buy every book in the series as long as you and the author both shall live?  Me: Ermmm, maybe? I'm not about contract reading. So a few years ago, I decided I was NOT committing to any other series novels. If it had a sequel, I was not buying. Then they got tricksy (OOoohhh, tricksy authorses!) The first one to fool me was Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Which was followed a year or so later by Dawn of the Dreadfuls .  A sequel?  To Pride and Prejudice ?  Are you kidding me?  This was shortly followed by Neal Shusterman.  His novel Unwind  is absolutely phenomenal.  I loved the ending.  No further closure necessary, Mr. Shu...