Reading changes your life. Reading unlocks worlds unknown or forgotten, taking travelers around the world and through time. Reading helps you escape the confines of school and pursue your own education. Through characters - the saints and the sinners, real or imagined - reading shows you how to be a better human being.

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

Students need to make their own choices about reading material and writing topics.

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

I realized that every lesson, conference, response, and assignment I taught must lead students away from me and toward their autonomy as literate people.

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.

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