secret readers

If you've been following along, you know that I'm at the Illinois Writing Project Summer Leadership Institute (We're live on twitter -> #IWPsli15 - but we're just getting started so not a lot of tweets yet!) Anyways, each morning we share stories from books we are inspired by, and today, Salina shared from the book above. This book was a Scholastic freebie! I posted the image above on Instagram and lots of people had a copy, so maybe there's a freebie out there for me somewhere? D100 - I'm talking to you! :-)

As Salina introduced the book, she was telling us a story about how she and her husband just had dinner with their new neighbors. Her neighbor is very into crafting jewelry as one of her hobbies. After the neighbor shared their story, she asked, "Salina, what do you do for fun?"

Her response was, "I don't know, I have to think about it." Luckily, the neighbor is super nice and let Salina off the hook, but this morning, as Salina is telling the story to all of us, and real talk: she really loves to read and that she was worried that her neighbor might not think it was a cool enough hobby, every one of us in class was erupting to giggles and comments like, "Secret readers!" and "Time for you to come out of the closet!"

Then, Salina went on to share this poem, from the book up above --

I mean, beautiful isn't even the right word (I don't have a lot of time to think about a better word right now!) but, it's a perfect poem, isn't it? Salina, who openly shares with all of us, who understands what a reading life is all about, wants a cooler hobby to share with her new friends.

I've often felt the same when my boyfriend and I are asked what we do for fun. He's a sports guy who loves fantasy baseball and loves movies, too. I, on the other hand, can't remember a movie (or a quote, for that matter) to save my life and what do I do for fun? Write a blog and seek beautiful works of art like the one above. We're so different, but I love that I have this amazing life as a reader and a writer! I think people on the outside of this literacy life maybe just don't get it. I know Hektor doesn't. It's not bad, but he would never revel in the poem I shared above, and he definitely wouldn't find the events of this morning's share time so funny, like the rest of us did.

So, friends, could there be any secret readers in your life?

How can we show all the others (our students included) what they are missing out on with this literacy life?

Perhaps I need a really great baseball story for the boyfriend!

Make sure to share your story with Two Writing Teachers!

Get the details for this challenge here!

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