"We can't wait for Monday!"

 On Friday afternoon, a pair of sixth graders appeared in my doorway. 

“We need a book,” they said in unison.

Sure! Do you have a title in mind, or do you want to look around?

“It’s The Honest Truth. It’s about this b--- THERE IT IS!”

One of them took a giant step towards the bookshelf, her hand outstretched as if the book might disappear.

“OH! And you have TWO! Can we have them?”

Of course! 

As the happy customers clutched their books, we had a spontaneous conversation about whether the bus driver would report Mark, what Jessie should do, and why Beau is the finest dog in all of young adult literature.

These are students I don’t have in class, but we have a connection now because of a book. Experiences like this can fuel me for days; quite honestly, they make me feel like a magician, but the real magic happened in their sixth grade homeroom. 

In an effort to maintain the expectation of our daily 20-minute reading block, we instituted “read aloud rooms.” One teacher on each team decides to read a book aloud, and students can either opt-in to that experience or choose to read a book on their own. A teacher had recently started The Honest Truth and these two were so invested in the story they needed the book for themselves. I’ll say it again: they needed the book.  Everything about them - from their posture to their gushing gratitude - told me about the emotional connection they had made to the story (and to each other) over the course of just a few days.

Even though I knew the teacher who had started the book earlier that week, the students continued to talk about what she had read and what had happened so far in the story.

“It’s soooo good! We couldn’t wait for Monday!”

If you need a reminder to keep reading out loud - yes, even in middle school - take this as your sign.