Good Readers Make Good Writers

by Jenny Hubbard Rowan Public Library

           

I taught high-school English for years, and, ten times out of ten, the students who wrote well were the ones who had began reading for pleasure at an early age.  The ones who hadn’t read for pleasure in the past (and didn’t care much for it in the present, either) found themselves trapped in a vicious cycle.

So how do you, the parent or guardian (or the actual teenager in question), help to make up for lost time?

This isn’t one you can blame on the teachers.  While the mechanics of writing can, to some degree, be taught, eloquence and flair cannot.  As Mark Twain said, the difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.  The difference between a reader and a non-reader is just as startling. And for a reluctant reader, longer is rarely better.  If your teen is no bookworm, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, National Geographic, and Vanity Fair feature stellar writing. On the second floor of the main branch of the library, you will find these magazines (and more), with comfy chairs nearby.

Once the reluctant reader has been hooked by your sneaky little plan, it’s on to longer material:  books.  True-crime stories offer a seedy allure irresistible to most everyone.  On the second floor (not far from the magazines!), have your kiddo scan the shelves at 364.1523.  If something doesn’t reach out and grab him or her, biographies and memoirs can be just as compelling.  If your daughter plays soccer, why not lead her to Solo: A Memoir of Hope, by Hope Solo?  If your son aspires to world domination, why not hand him The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia, by Candace Fleming?   I have yet to meet a reader, young or old, who didn’t tear through The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls.   Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson, is a gentle, affecting, easy-to-read memoir (and it’s short!).  

War accounts and dog tales certainly attract younger readers, but combined, they pack a lasting punch.  From Baghdad, with Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava, by Jay Kopelman, is only one possibility.  I used to teach Tim O’Brien’s semi-autobiographical account of his experience in Vietnam, The Things They Carried, to tenth-grade boys, who often finished it way ahead of schedule.  Other books they lapped up were The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, about a young man who rejects his cushy life for a solo journey into the Alaskan wilderness.

Speaking of getting lost in the woods, I recall Stephen King’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon as a quick, thrilling read.  It’s not a true story, but, as much of King’s fiction, it reads as if it could be.  For sunnier fare, teens might enjoy the novels of Alan Bradley, which feature girl detective Flavia de Luce. Though written for adults, they are easy to read, and they’re funny, too, and speaking of funny, Bossypants, by Tina Fey, not only made me laugh out loud, but it also made me think.  I like thinking; like listening, it’s a highly underrated skill.  And that brings us to a full circle that is not a vicious cycle:  good writers are good readers are good thinkers are good writers are good….