For Educators and Librarians Continued

Biting the Hand that Reads You

So, what do I tell students when I visit classrooms?

I tell them that as a full-time novelist/writer I don't write for teachers or for myself or for my wife or for my children or my parents or my friends or even for my dogs and cat. I confess that I don't even write for them - the students I am speaking to. Some of the students who hear this are offended. I don't write for THEM? How dare I not write for them? Especially after they've had to read what I wrote.

Who do I write for?

Drum Roll, Please

I write for the characters in my books, and most especially the protagonist. I don't look over my shoulder at anybody outside the story. I don't think about people I don't know - such as all fifth graders (what is a fifth grader, anyway?) or all seventh graders or librarians. I think only about the people in my books, and I get to know them very well before I start writing.

Enough About Writing, Already

So. Enough about writing. What about reading? What do I think about the way we should teach reading?

I'm so glad you asked.

But first, a confession. Even when I wasn't supposed to, I have always read for myself. If a teacher asked me what the author meant in different parts of a book, I could make something up. But the fact of the matter is, now that I am a writer, I know that nobody knows what the writer meant except the writer, and sometimes not even the writer knows. If a teacher asked me about the theme of the story, I could make up something good, but themes don't interest me as much as my teachers would have liked, and I suspect they don't interest too many students if they are reading books they care about.

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