Lit Up: One Reporter, Three Schools, Twenty-Four Books that Can Change Lives

Denby, David. Lit Up: One Reporter, Three Schools, Twenty-Four Books that Can Change Lives. 2016. 613 minutes. 288p. ISBN 9780805095852. Available as an audiobook on Overdrive.

One of the most important challenges school librarians face everywhere is the decline in reading. Students who read up a storm in elementary school still bring that enthusiasm to middle school but by 8th or 9th grade the number of active readers decline precipitously. Denby decided to sit on a 10th grade English class at a New York City magnet school for a year to examine this phenomenon and to see how English teachers everywhere try to counteract it.

His qualitative findings suggest that students can overcome their aversion of sustained reading, which they too often associate with school work or requirements and regain the reading for pleasure that many of them had when they were younger. Teachers who are able to inspire their students re-ignite a love of reading that has gone missing from the current testing all the time environment. Denby identifies several laddering strategies the teachers employ to help students access harder literature, and suggests that even if students only read popular novels, at least they are reading.

A great food for thought, this book would make an excellent faculty read or book club read. It challenges preconceived notions about students and their reading habits and it suggests some possible steps to take and counteract the decline of reading.