Hi everyone, as you may have noticed, I haven’t posted anything on this site since I graduated high school back in May (yay!). I’ll share more about what’s going on later, but I’ll definitely be writing more regularly now. So I’d like to share some of the biggest things I learned from my four-month hiatus:
1. Getting Kids to Read Isn’t Enough to Help Them Become Readers
Over the summer, I volunteered for several weeks at a reading literacy program. I will write more extensively about my experience with that later, but it shocked me the level of illiteracy going on in this country. Even in my city, many people have absolutely no idea how to read.
Most of these kids have no ability to understand books at all. Nor are they trying to read because they want to actually understand the books. They have long since decided that reading is boring and something that they must do. If they come across a book they really enjoy one day, then they might become a reader. Maybe not; some people just aren’t. But if all they’ve been reading is books they have absolutely no interest in, then they’re only going to dislike books more and more, and may never know if they could’ve experienced great happiness from reading books they really did like.
That’s why book reviewers are so important, because you only have a certain amount of opportunities to sell a child on the idea of reading. They may trust you and read the first few times, but if the books you give them are boring, they’re never going to want to read again. But if you give them really interesting books that they love, then they’ll want to read as much as they can! That’s why “reluctant readers” will commonly love certain books. It’s not that they don’t like reading or their reading abilities are insufficient; it’s that they’ve never had a book they enjoyed that would make them want to read.
I already knew all that, but I guess I learned how many people still think that just by forcing kids to read any old book they are going to become great readers. It is not going to happen.
2. Built to Last
This website has continued to grow in traffic since I stopped updating it. Several of my all-time best traffic days have been in the last couple of months, and I’ve still been getting feedback and questions. Part of this I believe has to do with recent Google updates, but it only goes to show that the important thing is that I have created a website of value that actually helps people and stands the test of time. Even though my traffic increases every time I take a break, it still amazes me. I have no doubt that even ten years from now someone could be looking up my reviews and stuff on this website and it would be just as relevant then as it is today.
3. Time Away Makes it More Important
I’ve always taken the information on this website very seriously, and being away for awhile makes me appreciate even more how great a website like this can be and motivate me to make sure everything I do here I always do with the greatest passion and make it the best that I can. I’m continually trying to make everything I do better and better, and I want this website to be the type that people will smile from having seen and known, and a magical place that I will always be proud of.
4. Connections
The purpose of this website is of course not to make money, like a lot of similar ventures out there are. Instead, I do it because I enjoy it and I like the idea of helping people. But I was again struck at how great this website is for developing connections and getting opportunities that I would never have gotten otherwise. I’ve gotten to know some great people because of it and gotten to do some great things and I can only hope that will continue in the future.
5. We Can’t Decide what Happens So We Should Just Do Our Best
This goes along with the last one. Nothing that has happened as a result of this blog could I have possibly foreseen when I started it back in 2009. Nor could I foresee now the great things that are going to happen. But in creating this website I’ve just done what has felt right and enjoyable to me, and I’ll keep doing exactly that and hope good things will happen!
6. What I Like about Books is Going into a Great World
Of course, even though I’ve taken a break from this blog, I haven’t taken a break from reading or writing; in fact, I’m reading more than ever before! I’ve learned, beyond anything I previously discovered, that there is a world that exists in my mind, a magical world of greatness, where things sparkle and everything is great forever. This is the world I’ve committed my writing from now on to try and express, and the judge of any book to me is how accurately they create that world.
7. I’m not a Kid Book Reviewer Anymore-and that’s ok!
When I first started this website, I was twelve years old and most certainly a kid book reviewer. Now I’m 17, going to college part-time, and am not really a kid book reviewer in the strictest sense. That’s ok, though, because I’ve only gotten smarter and learned more, and the meaning of a kid book reviewer to me is someone who understands kids, and therefore is able to give accurate advice about what books they like. I understand what books kids like these days now as much as ever, so I’m going to just keep calling myself a kid book reviewer. At least for now 🙂
Thanks for reading this and stay tuned for more!