Tags
I Missed the Reading Boat by Mandy Robek
Miss the boat is an idiom with two meanings. It means to miss out and to have made an error. I’ve done both in my reading life. I did not read the Harry Potter series! I don’t like to read fantasy. I had three girls under the age of seven when the series started. Life was busy. I also worked full time. My reading life was minimal and often based on nonfiction text either for teaching or about parenting. Each book in the series got longer and longer in length and I felt intimidated. I remember thinking at one point, I’ll give it a try and then I can catch up. I never did. The girls started watching the movies and I watched along with them. I’ve watched the movies several times and enjoyed them but I couldn’t join conversations comparing the text with the movie. There were times I didn’t understand parts of the movie.
My two oldest are avid Harry Potter readers. I would wonder and ponder how many times could they reread Harry Potter! Each summer my oldest has reread the entire series. My middle daughter would finish a book and reread it again. She doesn’t have the yearly summer voyage with Harry Potter but revisits them often. I remember pleading with her fifth grade teacher, a friend of mine to help her find other books to read. Of course, my smart friend is a fan of The Book Whisperer and could quote multiple reasons rereading is valued with older readers. Even watching them be avid Harry Potter readers, I was content with the movies. Until the seventh and final Harry Potter was coming out. This was the first time I found myself wishing I was part of the Harry Potter reading club. I felt left out. I had nothing to predict. I couldn’t join conversations with my daughter or my friends who were all excited. I didn’t understand some of the things written in the media about the upcoming book and then felt the same when the seventh movie was coming out.
I was on the verge of having a similar situation with the Hunger Games series. Another fantasy collection of stories that would not be my first choice for reading. I ignored the phenomena. Then my husband read the Hunger Games series and I hadn’t seen him read books in a very long time. Now, I had three family members in a reading club anticipating the upcoming movie and I couldn’t join in. I realized I still had time to join. So I did and before the first movie came out, I read The Hunger Games. I understood and appreciated the movie so much more having the book to compare it to. I enjoyed the conversations we had as a family after viewing the movie together. The first book ended with a happy ending and I was content as a reader. My family was amazed I didn’t have to read Catching Fire right away. What they didn’t know was I had a reading plan. I would read the book right before viewing the movie so I could be part of the reading club with fresh eyes, ears, and thinking. I wasn’t quite finished with Catching Fire when it came out so they went and saw it together and a couple of weeks later I went with my middle daughter to see the movie. We then had conversations together and I was thankful again for joining the reading club.
I’ve learned a few reading life lessons through both of these experiences.
- Sometimes it’s worth reading something out of your genre comfort level to be part of a reading club.
- Reading books with other family members fosters conversations.
- Talking about books and movies with teenagers is a safe topic and easy for them.
- Reading the book before seeing the movie is always better. ( I knew this but needed a reminder.)
- Life remains busy but I can navigate reading time to be part of a reading club and it’s okay to do it a bit different than others as long as it happens.
Thank you Nerdy Book Club community for fostering my reading life reflections and for providing a platform for members to share our thinking to promote reading as something to enjoy.
Mandy Robek wrote Reading Artifacts for The Nerdy Book Club. She blogs at enjoy-embracelearning.blogspot.com, is on twitter @mandyrobek and writes for Choice Literacy. She teaches kindergarten in Central Ohio and is finding more time for reading after having dinner with Colby Sharp. She wants to be part of the reading club on a regular basis.
Nerdy Book Club 
Sometimes life does get in the way of reading the ‘latest’ or the ‘greatest’, so I understand, and also like that you finally thought it was fun to join the club, that you got something out of it too. Yet, I think it’s important to be patient with students who follow different paths of reading, and maybe they’ll eventually want to read what everyone else is reading, or maybe not. If they’re readers, that counts too. Interesting to hear your thoughts about this, Mandy.
Linda,
You have shared some great thinking here. While reading the latest and greatest has many benefits, I think the biggest benefit from the latest and greatest is the motivation it often provides readers to keep reading and wanting more. When I taught third grade and spent time with transitional readers it was almost like watching a sport/game where the momentum increases for all the players on a team.
At the same time, I always admired the students in my room who were focused on a current genre or series and didn’t care what others were reading. I thought they almost knew themselves better as readers and were my students with a reading plan. I do think it’s okay for someone to not read a book everyone else is reading. It might not be the right time, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes readers make choices that aren’t just right for them and then that is difficult.
I think it comes down to choice. Readers need to make their own choices, be motivated and enjoy reading for reading to continue. That is our ultimate goal – to create readers who will continue reading when they aren’t sitting inside our classrooms.
Thanks for probing my thinking more, Linda.
Mandy
You are lovely to reply, Mandy, & I hope you didn’t think me too critical. I think choice is so important, and want to feel that students read their passions instead of following the crowd, but, and it is a big one, if the ‘crowd’ can nudge a reluctant reader by enthusiasm, it can become a wonderful thing. Also, it is sometimes a good community builder to share the same book experience, then movie, as you wrote. I guess it always comes down to “it depends”, on the reader’s goal, both personally and as a student. Thanks, Mandy!
I’ve tried so hard to get into Harry Potter… I just can’t. It’s too far out of my comfort zone. People are shocked when I tell them I haven’t read the whole series, but my husband has. (Shhh! I’ve only seen one of the movies too.)
That being said, the five reading life lessons you shared will stick with me. #1 will certainly stay with me the next time something comes out that is out of my ‘reading comfort zone.’
Hi Stacey,
It’s so comforting to know there is someone else out there that hasn’t read Harry Potter. I did read the first one the summer of 2012 because two of my girls are such avid fans. It was hard to read because I had seen the movie so many times with the girls. I couldn’t focus on the beauty of the book because I knew the general idea from the movie. I wonder if I might try at some other point in my reading life. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Mandy,
I was so excited to see your post on Nerdy Book Club! I was like…”Mandy Robek!” I can totally relate to this post…great points made on all fronts! I’m finding now that Sydney is in 7th grade, that reading the same book that she is reading and having a discussion with her is soooo important at this age! Hope all is going well for you and your family!
Megan Skogstad
Megan,
I’m so glad you stopped by Nerdy Book Club. It’s wonderful when we can combine our own reading with our parenting life, which then our teaching lives sneak in too. I couldn’t find you in listed as part of our district anymore, using google. I hope your family is well too. They all grow quickly.
Mandy
Way to go Mandy! It is fun to be a part of a reading club. Your honesty was also refreshing to hear about how you juggle reading time with the demands of working full time and being a mom. 🙂 You’re always part of a reading club at the Nerdy Book Club!
Megan (Ginther)…not to be confused with the Megan who wrote above me. 😉
As I was writing I thought about how honest this post, it’s nice to have a supportive group that embraces honesty. Thanks for stopping by.
Mandy