Oh my- I didn't realize it has been 2 weeks since I posted- yikes! I've been busy reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and I am Scout by Charles Shields (a Nelle Harper Lee bio) in preparation for our Big Read discussions.
For those of you who may not know, The Big Read is an initiative developed by the National Endowment for the Arts- NEA http://www.neabigread.org/- in response to a study done in 2004 which showed that we were becoming an illiterate society and people were not reading anymore- called Reading at Risk http://www.nea.gov/news/news04/ReadingAtRisk.Html. At the time I begged to differ because the kids at my high school (I was a high school librarian then) were reading a lot. An updated study now shows that the greatest increase in reading in these past few years has been amongst the teen and young adult population- YEAH (I saw it coming!)- check out To Read or Not to Read http://www.arts.gov/research/ToRead_ExecSum.pdf
My opinion is that young people now see reading as a cool activity, respect those who read and have great choices in literature TO read- all starting with and thanks to JK (Harry Potter changed the face of reading and readers). There was a time when readers were concidered nerds & dweebs but not anymore- the knowledge that those who read, succeed, is now commonly accepted and embraced!