I recently read an article in the New York Times and was struck by the debate over online reading versus printed-text reading. Reading is constantly changing in this world of technology. Many fear is that book reading may be a lost art. Students seem to be shifting their reading patterns and habits from books to online texts.

However, I wonder if this has more to do with their definitions of reading than the medium. I wonder if schools made reading more enjoyable and interesting, not just a set of skills or a task for test taking, would students be drawn back into books? Were they drawn to books in the first place? I like one of the quotes from the article, “I really think it’s the age at which you find that book that you really identify with that determines the rest of your reading life,” Mr. Alexie said. “The younger you are when you do that, the more likely you’re going to be a serious reader. It really is about finding yourself in a book.”

This quote gives me warm fuzzies. Images of snuggling with my four-year-old daughter while reading a book fill my head—I envision her finding that text that hooks her into reading for life.

But, if I flip this quote, I shudder. We know that students whose first experiences with reading are negative tend to be reluctant readers for life. I hear this over and over from the undergraduate students in my Content Area Literacy course. As they write their literacy autobiographies, many share their struggles with reading as a child that led them to avoid reading for a lifetime.

If we want students to be readers and to enjoy texts, we need to insure positive experiences, especially in those early grades. Additionally, we need to insure that all students can identify with characters within a text. We must ask ourselves, not only am I providing students with exciting and engaging stories, but am I providing students with characters that resemble them?

This requires dedication and a willingness to look beyond just Scholastic book order forms to find texts with diverse characters and cultures for our diverse student population.