What will life be like if people stop reading?

The New Yorker recently featured an article about what the overall decline in reading will mean to society on a large scale. It's spookily titled "Twilight of the Books" and written by Caleb Crain.

It's smart stuff on how reading developed, how reading changed human beings, and how today's growing reliance on TV and streaming video on the Internet for entertainment and news could eventually change the way we think. Of course, there's lots of head smackers about kids, reading and TV, like this tidbit:

The antagonism between words and moving images seems to start early. In August, scientists at the University of Washington revealed that babies aged between eight and sixteen months know on average six to eight fewer words for every hour of baby DVDs and videos they watch daily. A 2005 study in Northern California found that a television in the bedroom lowered the standardized-test scores of third graders. And the conflict continues throughout a child’s development. In 2001, after analyzing data on more than a million students around the world, the researcher Micha Razel found “little room for doubt” that television worsened performance in reading, science, and math.

I highly recommend the article, which you can read here.

A 12-Year Old's 2007 Reading List

Happy New Year!

Since this blog is supposed to be about getting kids to read more, I thought I'd share my 12-year-old daughter's list of books she read last year, in 2007. I spend a lot of time on this blog blabbing about getting kids to read more, so I better have some proof in the pudding! All my kids are reading machines, but this one keeps records! She keeps the books she reads written down in a notebook with the author's name, number of pages and the date she finished reading the book. Nerdy? Maybe. But she'll always be able to look back and see the books she read as a young girl. Which this nerdy dad thinks is really cool. (There are also many other benefits to this practice which I discussed in a blog entry back in July, '07!)

Here are the books with an asterisk next to her TOP TEN (her starred reviews). 78 books read in 2007! Now that's something to celebrate!

1.) Eldest, by Christopher Paolini
* 2.) A Corner of the Universe, by Ann M. Martin
3.) Winter Games, Camp Confidential #12, by Melissa J. Morgan
4.) Fairest, by Gail Carson
* 5.) Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, by Wendy Mass
6.) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle
7.) Pish Posh, by Ellen Potter
8.) The Fire Within, by Chris D'lace
9.) The Thief Lord, by Cornelia Funke
10.) Amalee, by Dar Williams
11. ) So Totally Emily Ebers, by Lisa Yee
12.) The Million Dollar Kids, by Dan Gutman
13.) The Egypt Game, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
14.) The Gypsy Game, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
15.) Soccer Chick Rules, by Dawn Fitzgerald
16.) Cat Running, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
17.) The Toothpaste Millionaire, by Jean Merrill
18.) Feathers, by Jacquelin Woodson
19.) Madison Finn, Super Edition #3, by Laura Dower
20. Horns and Wrinkles, by Joseph Helgerson
21.) The Annoyance Bureau, by Lucy Frank
22.) Double Dutch, by Sharon M. Draper
23.) Click Here (To Find Out How I Survived Seventh Grade), by Denise Vega
24.) Hatchet, by Gary Paulson
25.) Crane, The Five Ancestors, #3, by Jeff Stone
26.) In the Cards Love, by Mariah Fredericks
27.) The Cupid Chronicle, by Coleen Paratome
28.) S-P-E-L-L-D-O-W-N, by Karon Luddy
29.) Listen, by Stephanie S. Tolan
30.) The Fruit Bowl Project, by Sarah Durkee
31.) Camp Confidential #13, by Melissa J. Morgan
32.) The Clique, by Lisa Harrison
33.) Twelve, by Lauren Myracle
34.) Camp Confidential #15, by MelissaJ. Morgan
35.) Charlie Bone #16, by Jenny Nimo
36.) Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling
37.) The Problem with Paradise, by Lesly Dahl
38.) Camp Confidential #14, by Melissa J. Morgan
39.) Camp Confidential #16, by Melissa J. Morgan
* 40.) The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1, by Rick Riordan
41.) Gregor the Overlander #5, by Suzanne Collins
42.) How to Steal a Dog, by Barbara O'Conner
43.) Just Another Day In My Insanely Real Life, by Barbara Dee
44.) The Sea of Monsters, Percy Jackson and the Olympians #2, by Rick Riordan
45.) The Face of the Milk Carton, by Caroline B. Cooney
46.) Whatever Happened to Janie? by Caroline B. Cooney
47.) The Voice on the Radio, by Caroline B. Cooney
48.) What Janie Found, by Caroline B. Cooney
* 49.) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, J.K. Rowling
50.) The Titan's Curse, Rick Riordan
51.) Blue Fingers, by Cheryl Aylward Whitesel
* 52.) The Amulet of Samarkind, by Jonathan Stroud
53.) The Golem's Eye, by Jonathan Stroud
54.) Ptolemy's Gate, by Jonathan Stroud
55.) The Outsiders, by S. E. Hinton
56.) Gilda Joyce and The Ghost Sonata, by Jennifer Allison
57.) Seven Tears into the Sea, by Terri Farley
58.) Austenland, by Shannon Hale
* 59.) Eclipse, by Stephanie Meyer
60.) Feed, by M.T. Anderson
61.) Enola Holmes, by Nancy Springer
62.) Atherton, by Patrick Carman
63.) New Moon, by Stephanie Meyer
* 64.) Just Listen, by Sarah Dressen
65.) The Isabel Factor, by Gayle Friensen
66.) The Summer Sherman Loved Me, by Jane St. Anthony
67.) Grace Above All, by Jane St. Anthony
68.) Wicked Lovely, by Melissa Marr
69.) Griffin's Castle, by Jenny Nimo
70.) The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants, by Ann Brashares
71.) The Truth About Forever, by Sarah Dessen
72.) That Summer, by Sarah Dessen
73.) The Faerie Path, by Frewin Jones
74.) Pretty Is, by Elizabeth Holmes
75.) The Princess and the Hound, by Mette Ivie Harrison
* 76.) Firegirl, by Tony Abbott
77.) The Last Queen, by Frewin Jones
* 78.) Nobody's Princess, by Esther Friesner

"To Read or Not To Read" Report

I've been reading over the Executive Summary of the National Endowment for the Arts' latest report, "To Read or Not to Read." Hold onto your hat: Young people are reading less. Actually grade schoolers are doing okay, but middle schoolers, high schoolers and college-age kids are really sucking wind in the reading department.

I should say this thing is not a pick-me-up. It leads off with these three factoids:

• Americans are spending less time reading
• Reading comprehension skills are eroding
• The declines have serious civic, social, cultural, and economic implications

Here are two interesting factoids I've gleaned while flipping through the Executive Summary:

Fact 1: The reported number of books in a house has a direct correlation to how well kids did in science, civics and history. If a home had more than 100 books, the scores were 161, 167 and 305 respectively. With 0-10 books in the home, the scores were 122, 123, and 265.

Lesson: A home that values books produces children who do better in school.

Fact 2: Kids in 12th grade who read for fun almost every day have an average writing score of 162, kids who never or hardly ever read scored 136.

Lesson: Read a lot and you will be a better writer.

Most interesting is a passage in the preface—written by Dana Gioia, the Chairman of the NEA— that mentions the impact reading can have on people's lives:

"Whether or not people read, and indeed how much and how often they read, affects their lives in crucial ways. All of the data suggest how powerfully reading transforms the lives of individuals—whatever their social circumstances. Regular reading not only boosts the likelihood of an individual's academic and economic success—facts that are not especially surprising—but it also seems to awaken a person's social and civic sense. Reading correlates with almost every positive personal and social behavior surveyed. It is reassuring, though hardly amazing, that readers attend more concerts and theater than non-readers, but it is surprising that they exercise more and play more sports—no matter what their education level. The cold statistics confirm something that most readers know but have mostly been reluctant to declare as fact—books change lives for the better."

You can download the Executive Summary here.

You can order a free hardcopy by snail mail or download the full report here.

Reading's "Startling Decline" Featured on NPR

DOH! I meant to post this up when I heard it last week. But, alas, I'm getting old.

This report covers the NEA's new report on reading and the "startling declines" it indentifies. Nothing new here, but it reminds me that I have to download that report and see what's what. But I dig it when this topic gets national news coverage—enough Britney and Lindsay already! Jeez.

You can listen to the report here.

Wisonsin & Pods of Potential

Last week I had a thought while flying back from a fantastic library visit in Middleton, Wisonsin and was listening to the unsteady nose whistle of the man sleeping next to me in the cranial embrace of a pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones: Man, there are a lot of kids out there.

Okay, granted, that's not particularly insightful or profound. And I wasn't even referring to Wisonsin, necessarily—although they have their share of backpack sloggers!

There's just something about flying over this vast country that gets you thinking about how many people are wandering around down there. And to meet all these great, enthusiastic kids who have read your books and want you to sign them is really sort of exciting and heady and humbling. And it got me thinking about the vast sea of young people out there; each kid is like some kind of bouncing pod of potential. Some will blossom and really do amazing things, while others—too many I'd say—never quite realize their potential. They get distracted, waylaid, sidetracked and lost for a million different reasons.

Let's faced it, our kids are not struggling for survival anymore, trudging across the snowy plains in hope that Dad or Uncle Walt bags dinner for everybody with a spear. Communities aren't being swept away by hunger, disease or drought. Heck, we've got the whole survival thing pretty well figured out. So are we taking advantage of that? How many kids today reach their potential? How many get half way there? How much could this country achieve, create, cure, discover, build, invent, and figure out if we all could just get close to achieving our potential?

If you're waiting for the answer, I don't have it. But I've got a feeling that the kids with parents who enourage them to read, sign them up for summer reading programs and sacrifice an afternoon to bring them to events where they can watch a real, live author-illustrator talk about the creative process and the joy of writing and illustrating...now they've got a much better chance at tapping that potential.

Kudos to those moms and dads who tip the scale in their kids favor!

Facts and Myths About Reading

Last week I was the "guest author" at Renaissance Learning's West Coast Conference in Sacramento, CA. The people from Rennaissance were very supportive and treated me very well—they also had really cool Wisconsin accents! I had a blast! I signed tons of books, met lots of great teachers and librarians and spread the news about the Joe Sherlock series to people from all over California, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada.

If you haven't heard of Renaissance, they make Accelerated Reader (and other cool products, too). Accelerated Reader is a system of software quizes students can take after reading a book to test their comprehension and reading skill as well as chart their progress as a reader. It's also a great motivational tool that gets kids motivated to read more. When my books first came out, many people asked me if my books were "AR." At that time I had no idea what they were talking about, now I do. For some teachers and librarians, it's a key part of the buying decision. (I'd really like to take some of the tests on my books and see how I do!)

One of the things I picked up at the conference was a brochure published by Renaissance entitled "Facts and Myths About The Reading Gap and How to Close It." It has tons of good little factoids that are relevant to this blog. Here are a few nuggets of Truth:

Girls read better than boys. Fact.
The 2004 National Assessment of Educational Progress reported that in all assessed grades—4th, 8th, and 12th—girls scored higher in reading achievement than boys. Girls outscored boys by 5 scale points in 4th grade, 10 points in 8th grade, and 14 points in 12 grade. (Yikes! C'mon, boys! What's up with that?)

Boys don't read. Myth.
Boys do read—they just do not read as much as girls. Girls spend more time reading books than boys at every age starting in first grade, and the difference increases over time. (I know that's the case for grown ups, so the trend starts early!)

Boys read primarily nonfiction books. Girls read primarily fiction books. Myth.
While it is true that boys read more nonfiction books than girls, the vast majority of books both girls and boys read throughout all grades is fiction. (According to the chart in the booklet, the difference is only a few percentage points, almost statistically insignificant!)

Internet reading helps to improve reading about as much as book reading. Myth.
Studies demonstrate that students tend to scan Internet sites looking at headlines and key information, versus engaging in close reading shown to be essential to buidling good reading skills. A large-scale worldwide study to children's reading habits showed that of all the kinds of reading—such as Internet, newspaper, magazine and books—book reading is the single best predictor of reading ability worldwide. (So enough with the "but Jimmy reads a lot on the Internet!" stuff!)

Anyway, that's some food for thought. And just the tip of the iceberg of all the stuff I picked up. So let me know if you've used AR and how you've seen it help kids. And do let me know if you've taken the Joe Sherlock quizes and how you think I'd do on them!

The Impact of a Visiting Author

On Wednesday evening I visited Benjamin Bubb Elementary in Mountain View, CA and was the speaker at their "Reading Under the Stars" celebration. It was really fun. I drew illustrations on a big white board, read some from my books, and answered lots of good questions from both kids and adults alike. I sold almost every book I brought with me—well over 100 books. It was really fun meeting all the great kids who waited in the line to get thier books signed.

Driving home that night, I was thinking about how much impact an author visit has on kids. I've been told by so many teachers and admininstrators after I've visited a school how much the kids were inspired to create and enthused about writing. You can't put a price on stuff like that.

Hey, nobody ever visited my school when I was a kid...actually we had a guy who made balloon animals and did some card tricks visit once, but that was different. And sort of creepy.

If your child's school has a committee to bring authors to the school, do what you can to support them. If your school doesn't have a program set up for author visits, start one. It really means a lot to the kids—I know; I've seen it in their eyes. Some schools seem to be better at this than others, and they work hard to raise the money it takes to bring an author to a school. And although I run the risk of sounding self-serving, it's a great investment. Kudos to you who bring authors to schools.

You never know how many kids will become more intersted in reading, writing and books in general after an author visit. I can honestly say it sometimes feels like a visiting author can make an impact that will last a lifetime. I could be wrong—but I doubt it.