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by Donalyn Miller (Author), Teri Lesesne (Author)
What reading experiences have entertained you, provoked you, taught you, inspired you, helped you to see your own life more clearly, or connected you with others? As teachers, librarians, school administrators, and caregivers who love reading, we know what it feels like to fall into a book and let the world fall away. We have joyous reading memories, and we know how reading can sustain and inspire us.
Now consider: When talking with children about their reading lives at school, are you likely to hear about this transformative reading joy? Or are you more likely to hear about reading logs, book reports, and standardized tests? For too many young readers, reading is joyless. It is something that is required of them, but not something that they choose to do.
Here's the truth: It is possible to teach children how to read well without killing their love for reading in the process.
The Joy of Reading is a guide for teachers, librarians, administrators, and families to create the conditions for joyful reading. Donalyn Miller and Teri Lesesne draw from their decades of work with students, teachers, and librarians, providing practices that nurture joy while identifying factors that destroy joy, all with a clear understanding of the realities of today's classrooms and libraries.
There's more to life than school and work. There's more to reading than school-based value systems for it. We can aim higher than short-sighted measurements and, instead, become reading encouragers, supporters, and role models for lifelong, joyful reading.
Author Biography
Donalyn Miller's work champions self-selected independent reading, providing guidance and resources that foster children's love of reading and the development of positive reading identities. A national and international consultant and bestselling author, Donalyn's published works include The Book Whisperer (Jossey-Bass, 2009), Reading in the Wild (Jossey-Bass, 2013), and Game Changer: Book Access for All Kids (co-written with Colby Sharp, Scholastic, 2018) as well as articles in Gifted Child International, Education Week Teacher, The Reading Teacher, Voices From the Middle, Educational Leadership, Horn Book, School Library Journal, and The Washington Post. Recipient of TCTELA's Elementary Language Arts Teacher of the Year (2011) and TCTELA's Edmund J. Farrell Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award (2018) (for her contributions to the language arts teaching profession). Donalyn is also a co-founder of The Nerdy Book Club, an online community which provides inspiration, book recommendations, resources, and advice about raising and teaching young readers. Donalyn and her husband, Don, live in Texas atop a dragon's hoard of books. You can connect with her on her website BookWhisperer.com, or on Twitter at @DonalynBooks.
Teri Lesesne's long and influential career was devoted to readers. Author of several books, including Reading Ladders and The Joy of Reading (co-authored with Donalyn Miller), she was known for the passion she brought to connecting readers with books. Teri was a middle-school teacher, a Distinguished Professor the department of Library Science at Sam Houston State University, Executive Director of ALAN (the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English), a National Book Award judge, and recipient of the 2007 ALAN award for her significant contributions to the field. Known to many as "Professor Nana," Teri's legacy lives on in the librarians and teachers her work has nurtured.
