Preventing Readicide

As I began searching out relevant books and articles related to promoting reading and reading programs, I kept coming across references to Kelly Gallagher's book, Readicide: How Schools are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It.  Gallagher is a high school English teacher as well as an author and literacy expert.  Readicide is "the systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools."  This definition is provocative, but, unfortunately, it is true for many schools.  I was excited to get a copy of Readicide through my public library ILL program and have already started reading it.  This book would be of interest to teachers, librarians, parents, and anyone else interested in promoting a lifelong love of reading. From what I have read so far, once U.S. students are hitting 7th grade, their time spent reading for pleasure drops precipitously.  Gallagher provides some solutions that might help stem this "reading crisis" and encourage continued literacy at all ages.

Links:

Kelly Gallagher's website