You’re relaxing over the summer—spending time at the beach or pool. Maybe you’re out with friends, or inside with the cold air conditioning pumping throughout your house. Perhaps you’re on vacation with your family. Finally, you get a measly two months off school, yet something is nagging at the back of your mind: the dreaded summer reading assignment.
I’ve already made it clear what my feelings are about the summer assignment when I wrote my first article for The Gull. But clearly, my input fell on deaf ears. This past summer there were two different books, which I believe was a good thing because middle schoolers don’t have the same reading or maturity levels as high schoolers. High schoolers read Born a Crime while middle schoolers read Stargirl (I won’t be speaking as much about Stargirl because I haven’t read it). However, in the summer of 2024, the summer assignment was different—it was fiction rather than a biography. Changing genres would be a better way to get students interested in reading.
The aspects of Born a Crime that I did enjoy were that you could hear Trevor Noah’s voice in his writing, and the ending was powerful with its impactful quotes. Born a Crime wasn’t a bad book, by any means, but it’s just not the kind of book I enjoy reading. I cannot speak for everyone in this matter, but I assume the majority of people don’t like reading nonfiction. And isn’t the whole point to open one’s eyes to the beauty of reading? To read is to feel something, whether that be joy or perhaps sorrow. Whatever it is, reading is supposed to be an experience, and to me, nonfiction is just irksome work to be completed.
I gathered information and found out how the summer reading book is decided upon. Usually, students are involved in the decision-making. For the book of 2024, I was part of the group of students who helped decide upon the book. To my knowledge, this wasn’t implemented this year due to a suspected time crunch. For this past summer’s book, feedback was taken from kids who didn’t like The Inheritance Games and why. The English department came up with a few books and finally decided on one.
I spoke with Mrs. Perrone, the English 9 and AP Language teacher and the faculty advisor of The Gull. When asked about her opinion on both summer books, for high school and middle school, she told me that she liked Born a Crime because the style of writing works well with AP Language. And Stargirl, the book for middle school, had a message that she appreciated. However, she does believe there are flaws in the method of selecting a summer book, and I agree wholeheartedly with the solutions she offered. Initially, Mrs. Perrone said fantasy could be an interesting genre, but she knows it could be very divisive. So she believes that in the future, creating a “menu” of sorts—a list so students could pick what book to read over the summer, would be best. This would allow students more freedom and let them read something that interests them. When asked what the assignment would look like if that were the case, she responded by saying students would have a choice in the assignments as well. She gave some examples of potential assignment options: writing a book review for those who prefer to write, a one-pager for those who are more creative and artistic, a presentation for those who want to speak about the book, and additional potential assignments.
I know how important reading is, especially in this day and age. According to Above & Beyond ABA Therapy, “Only 32% of the U.S. population reads books for pleasure.” This is a disheartening number, as reading is a wonderful experience that transports one, teaches empathy, increases vocabulary skills, and builds knowledge. Now, I’m not here to persuade you to read a book—but if you need any recommendations, you can read my book review articles. Nevertheless, forcing students to read a book that doesn’t interest them is not how you get them to enjoy reading. It’s how they grow to despise it.
