4th Annual Book-a-Day

We all know that teachers who read are more effective at engaging their students with reading, but our school year demands often limit our reading time. Summer vacations give us an opportunity to recommit to reading, explore new books for our students, or dive into the books that pile up around our houses during the year.

Give us your beach reads, your professional development texts, your Game of Thrones series waiting to be read. It is time for my 4th Annual Summer Book-a-Day Challenge. My last school day is June 1st and I will begin my personal reading challenge on June 2nd.

The rules (more guidelines, really) are simple:

Read one book per day for each day of summer vacation. This is an average, so if you read three books one day (Hey, I have done this!) and none the next two, it still counts.

You set your own start date and end date.

Any book qualifies including picture books, nonfiction, professional books, poetry anthologies, or fiction--children's, youth, or adult titles.

Keep a list of the books you read and share them often via a social networking site like goodreads or Twitter (post using the #bookaday hashtag), a blog, or Facebook page. You do not have to post reviews, but you can if you wish. Titles will do.

The #bookaday community has become a vibrant group of avid readers, teachers, and librarians who share book titles all year and participate in ongoing conversations about books, reading and the young readers we support. Many participants tell me that they rediscovered their love of reading and walked into their classrooms and libraries in the fall with mountains of books and reading experiences to share with their new students after the summer Book-a-Day Challenge.

Let me admit a secret. I probably won't make my Book-a-Day Challenge this year without reading more than a few picture books and graphic novels to hedge my bets. You probably won't either. Ultimately, it doesn't matter what we read, or how much, or when. What matters is that we celebrate reading, share our book love with other readers, discover new titles, and enjoy ourselves.

I look forward to a great summer of reading and the opportunity to share with new reading friends.

My family insists that stacks of books are not furniture. For the sake of family harmony, I need to read. Seriously, I am not doing this for myself...

Are you ready to read?