When we meet and I discover that we have read and loved the same books, we are instant friends.

I am a reader, a flashlight-under-the-covers, carries-a-book-everywhere-I-go​, don't-look-at-my-Amazon-bill. I choose purses based on whether I can cram a paperback into them, and my books are the first items I pack into a suitcase. I am the person who family and friends call when they need a book recommendation or cannot remember who wrote Heidi. My identity as a person is so entwined with my love of reading and books that I cannot separate the two.

If we value all readers, we must value all reading.

Failing to graduate a populace that values reading has long-term consequences for everyone.

Students will read if we give them the books, the time, and the enthusiastic encouragement to do so. If we make them wait for the one unit a year in which they are allowed to choose their own books and become readers, they may never read at all. To keep our students reading, we have to let them.

Books are love letters (or apologies) passed between us, adding a layer of conversation beyond our spoken words.

Readers enjoy talking about books almost as much as they like reading.