A guest blog!

THE ART of READING

When I sit around a table with a group of kids to discuss a book, I’m really sitting at the table to discuss their thinking.  The book, or the text, is the vehicle for our meeting of the minds; to push ourselves to find and examine the ideas burgeoning from within the texts (at times, or at first, not so obviously), to conjure up insights about a character’s experience, emotions, re-actions, thoughts, motivations, imaginations, etc., to grapple with real issues of humanity, individuality and group dynamics, to dig up the great ideas of what it means to exist in this world.  Really reading together, discussing together, gives us the great opportunity to be introduced to and to grapple with much bigger ideas that exist outside of ourselves, and yet reside in each of our souls, at any age.  To read, to really, truly read is to become and understand what it means to be human, because it gives us the lift off to think, to engage, to listen, and ultimately to dream, imagine, and create!

Happy Reading!

Rochelle Robinson
Library & Literary Arts, Laurence School
www.awritersspace.com