Make New Friends and Book Talk the Old

Over the course of ten days this month, my family lost two strong and beautiful women. The grief was shocking and deep, making it hard to concentrate. Much as we lean on our friends in hard times, I retreated to a book from my past to help occupy my mind and soothe my heart. How better to spend sleepless nights than lost in the pages of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice? Longbourne, Netherfield and Pemberley were places I could go and exist in a world where everyone, save Lady Catherine de Bourgh and the nefarious Mr. Wickham, got a happy ending. This re-reading inspired me to go in to school and get our copies of Pride & Prejudice into the hands of some 8th graders who had recently come in to research life in the 19th century.

As a librarian, I have told my students many times that looking through the bookshelves at school is sometimes like being among old friends. The titles and covers evoke fond memories of characters, stories, and reflections of who I was and what I was doing at the time I read the book. Some of my most successful book talks have been impromptu conversations at the bookshelf, inspired by the sight of these old friends.

Middle schoolers are keenly tuned in to sincerity and they seem to zero in on anything related to a teacher's personal experience. My students will often argue over a book that is "old" over something with a shiny new cover simply because I expressed how important the book was to me at a certain point in time, or how it made me laugh, cry, or long to do something. So while we promote and review all the wonderful new books being published and celebrated, let's not forget to share our old favorites with the next generation of readers.