So glad you’re here!

My name is Jenn and I’ve always loved books. As a kid, I read pretty much anything I could get my hands on, and I read everywhere I went–perched in the branches of a tree in my grandparents’ back yard, in the back seat of the car on family trips, under the covers of my bed with a flashlight…you get the picture. Naturally, my favorite class in high school was AP Literature, and when it was time for me to declare a college major, English felt like the “easy” choice.

Have you ever seen comedian John Mulaney’s bit about college? (It’s hilarious, but it has some language, so be warned if you’re sensitive to that and be careful if you’ve got little ears around!) In it, he says, “I paid $120,000 for someone to tell me to go read Jane Austen…and then I didn’t.” John Mulaney went to Georgetown. I went to UCLA. I can say FOR SURE that some of my Bruin classmates would shout “Amen!” As for me? Can’t relate. Sure, some books were a total slog (War and Peace, for instance), but I still read them.

Maybe that’s why I found myself disappointed day after day when I became an AP Lit teacher myself. I would assign reading, but for the most part, my students just didn’t do it. Except, of course, for the rare gems who actually (gasp!) loved books too. The kind of kids who carried copies of Paper Towns or The Hunger Games for fun, turning paper pages instead of scrolling on their phones to fill dead moments in their days. You know, the bookish kids.

I believe that most teens who love books learn to love them way before high school. For some, the love of reading comes naturally, but for others, it must be nurtured.

I left teaching just before I became a mama to the first of my two bambinos. My husband and I read to him every day and now, as a preschooler, he “reads” picture books to his little brother and points out every word he recognizes (“Costco” was his first “sight word” and remains an enduring favorite).

I certainly don’t expect my boys to love everything they are asked to read in their lives, but I do hope they’ll never forget how magical it can be to lose oneself in a book.