The Book Whisperer (Blog) Moves to Substack

Hello! If you are receiving this post via email, you are a past subscriber of The Book Whisperer blog. If you have found my page via search engine, welcome. I have not posted to this page since 2016. For more than a decade, I wrote at least once a month for The Nerdy Book Club. In 2020 and 2021, I wrote a monthly column for School Library Journal.

Working on my fourth and fifth books back-to-back during the first years of the pandemic was challenging. Completing The Joy of Reading (Heinemann, 2022) after my co-writer and friend Teri Lesesne passed away in 2021 was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I’m proud of our book and honored to be Dr. Lesesne’s final collaborator. I remain dedicated to our shared mission—helping young people find increased access to books and encouragement for reading. As teachers and readers ourselves, Teri and I learned that the power and joy of reading have the potential to enrich and transform many lives.

One of the most important resources educators and librarians bring to school is their personal engagement with reading. Teri and I crafted The Joy of Reading to be a resource for educators, but we also want it to be enjoyable to read. I hope you find the book useful and engaging. My wonderful colleague, Aliza Werner, created a fantastic book study guide for The Joy of Reading. Please reach out to me if you would like a free copy. 

After submitting the manuscript for Joy, I turned my full attention toward finishing The Commonsense Guide to Your Classroom Library (Scholastic, 2022). This is my second book with my long time collaborator and Nerdy Book Club co-founder, Colby Sharp. As teachers, we know first hand the potential of classroom libraries to enhance and extend students’ reading experiences. Colby and I have also struggled with selecting books and organizing our classroom collections to maximize their benefits while managing their pitfalls.

Based on years of observing students, reflecting on what worked and what didn’t, and endlessly tweaking our own classroom libraries, Colby and I collected our best ideas and observations in this guide. Just like our first book, Game Changer, Colby and I were able to interview several administrators, teachers, and librarians for their own suggestions for building and sustaining your classroom library and using it with students. The Commonsense Guide to Your Classroom Library includes guiding questions after each chapter to support your personal inquiry or discussion with colleagues, too.

Finishing these two books was satisfying, but it drained me intellectually and emotionally. I needed a break. During the same time period, my husband, Don, and I moved three hundred miles south to San Antonio. Managing the move and settling into our new home took my attention for more than a year. I didn’t write much in 2022 and into 2023. 

I have written more this year and enjoyed writing again. I miss blogging. I miss organizing my thoughts about reading, then sharing them with others. I miss the self-expression. I miss learning from all of you. I do not miss the trolls who commented on my blog or the pressure to write on a regular basis. As for this page, I am not sure that “blogging” for this page is the right space for us to connect anymore. 

While Nerdy Book Club and its blog continue, I do not plan to continue writing on this page. I have started a Substack. If you are interested in following my open writing in the future, please subscribe to my Substack newsletter and posts. The basic newsletter and most of my Substack content will always remain free. There is a paid subscriber option for folks who can support my work in that way. Paid subscribers will also have access to four webinars a year. The first one is in September.

I appreciate all of you for supporting this blog in the past. I hope it was useful and interesting. I look forward to connecting with you on Substack and continuing our discussions about books and reading. You can also connect with me via social media.

—Donalyn Miller