Entertainment

I work with six 6th grade students in Soar Success to Reading.
They hate school and they especially hate reading!
We happened to get through all of the Soar books and still had
a month left of school. I talked with my facillitator to ask her opinion
about reading a book I love and she went out and got 6 copies of
the book....Inkheart. In previewing the book, I could see a more
than casual interest springing up in several of my students. By the time
we finished chapter 6, they were all begging to go on. Realizing that chapter 7
only had two pages, I let them. They didn't want to stop there! So, did I have them
hooked? They realized that we would not be able to finish the book by the
end of the school year. I told them that the Public Library had copies available.
(Most of them live within walking distance to Tyler Library!) They said they never read
at home, especially in the summer. I then mentioned that the next book Inkspell is
even better than the first and that I bet they could finish both of them this summer.
One student asked if that was a challenge and I told him "absolutely!"
The reason why I titled this entertainment is that I realize children today have
access to a huge variety of electronic entertainment. When I grew up....BOOKS were my
entertainment. How can we compete with this? Thank goodness for great writers today
who capture the imaginings of my students! (Of course, it helped when I told them Inkheart was being made into a movie!)