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  • Tanner Kent

    Ready, read

October 19, 2009

Teens make reading fun

Teen Read Week encourages looks at books

By Tanner Kent

MANKATO — For Mankato East sophomore Rebecca Snapp, it was “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

She read it at the recommendation of her grandfather, himself a high school English teacher, and it changed her life.

For junior Nic Wiesjahn, it was “Terrier,” a fantasy novel by Tamora Pierce about an unexpected teenage heroine caught up in a dark underworld of kidnap and abduction. He’s read it eight times.

For sophomore Allison Ellstrom, it was “Song of Lioness,” also written by Pierce. For Halim Kim, it was Frances Hodgson Burnett’s “The Secret Garden,” a classic tale of discovery and youthful determination.

These, said the East students who volunteered to coordinate Teen Read Week, are the books that have made a difference in their lives. And they’re hoping fellow students will find one of their own.

“We just want to encourage students to read a little more,” Snapp said.

Ellstrom added: “At least more reading than what’s required.”

In conjunction with the American Library Association’s Family Literacy Week, several Mankato East High School staff and students coordinated a similar Teen Read Week in Mankato. On Monday, Mankato Mayor John Brady made the designation official and issued a proclamation in the school’s media center.

For this week, students will read book excerpts during the afternoon announcements with classrooms competing to guess the name of the book.

Candy will be involved as an incentive for the winner, but students said that in a world of texts and tweets, books can be a tough sell.

“It’s harder than it looks,” Ellstrom admitted.

Cindy Pischner, a media specialist at Mankato East, said students are still reading books from the library — but tastes have changed.

For instance, she said, vampire books are wildly popular (and no doubt inspired by the recent “Twilight” craze). Also popular, she said, are the manga comics read widely by Japanese students.

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