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Book Review of The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child

The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child
reviewed on + 125 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5


I just finished reading this after it caught my eye in the 'new arrivals' section of the library. I think it's really geared more towards teachers with the idea that independent reading is best vs having kids read the assigned junk (my words!) schools usually assign. She's been doing this approach for her sixth graders for years and has an extensive in-class library with books in totes according to genre. She offers suggestions but the kids pick what they want to read for the most part among genre guidelines and allows for reading time in class. Her requirement is each student read 40 books during the school year! And nearly all make that goal. It was fun to read about the kids finding a love for reading. I had hoped from the title that it would offer suggestions on how to get kids to love reading at any age since my friend has a 1 1/2 yr old and wants him to be a reader. I found a few good suggestions but it wasn't what I expected from the book's title. Still I'd have given it a 5 but I found parts to be sorta boring-ish and technical. The concept sounds great and sure wish I'd had teachers who followed the same ideas but unfortunately she seems to be the only one teaching this way then they go back to standardized reading the following year.