It’s the end of November and almost Christmas. Which means I need to start thinking about presents for my students. Every year I have students write a letter to Santa with a list of ten different kinds of books they like to read.
Then I go to the Children’s Book Project to get free books. I make a list of all the genres and books they like and search for their favorite books. It’s fun to try and match students with their homerun book.
Some students love to read. They can read for hours on end. Other students hate reading. They feel reading is a chore. So I try to see what interests them and help them find their homerun book.
A homerun book is the book that captures your interest and ignites your love for reading. I have always loved reading, but I remember some of my homerun books. You can have many homerun books, one for each genre.
In sixth grade, our teacher Mr. Sacks would give books for prizes. I remember getting Hardy Boys Casefiles #11: Brother Against Brother.
That was the first time I had read a mystery. I loved it so much that I started collecting Hardy Boys books. I read detective, mystery, and espionage books after that.
Another homerun book is “Jue Dai Shuang Jiao“. Technically this wasn’t the first Chinese novel I read, but it was the one that I bought after reading it from the library.
When I give books to my students, I hope I can help them find their homerun book. This is why I usually give them books in a series. If they love one book, they can easily find another favorite.