From: Gerry O'Brien <gobrien>
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2006 10:38:50 -0300

Hello. My name is Gerry O'Brien and I've been lurking for a while so I thought I'd better introduce myself and jump in on a topic that I've had to deal with for a long time. I live in Prince Edward Island and I have been teaching 8-11 year olds for most of the last 30 years. I've found a number of authors who kids are attracted to but just putting a whole bunch of books in front of a kid rarely works. What I've found most effective is reading to the students. The first thing you must do is become an excellent oral reader. Use "voices" [all characters sound different, don't they?]. Use dramatic pauses. Use emotion. Read the first couple of chapters to your audience and if you do it well and stop your reading at a cliff-hanger moment, you'll usually have them fighting over who gets the book next. More than a few times I've handed the book over to Reluctant Ralph[or Rita]. I find this works best with humour and mystery books. If you choose authors who have several books I've often found they'll read everything by that author. Some of my favourite authors are Barbara Park, Roald Dahl, Louis Sachar, Judy Blume, Farley Mowat, E.L. Konigsburg, and Beverly Cleary. Sorry if I sound a little preachy here but in my experience just placing a great book in front of a reluctant reader doesn't work. You have to turn him on first! Given him/her a taste of Roald Dahl's "voice" and they'll be much more likely to devour the rest. Over the years I read hundreds and hundreds of books to my students. I read so many I began to think I could even write one. So I did. It's being published in Sept. Looking forward to sharing in your expertise. Gerry www.gerryobrien.ca [coming soon]
"Bubba Begonia, You'll Be Sorry!" Acorn Press PEI, Sept., 2006
Received on Thu 03 Aug 2006 08:38:50 AM CDT