Known for her popular blog, The Book Whisperer, Donalyn Miller is a dedicated teacher who says she has yet to meet a child she couldn't turn into a reader. Her approach, however, is not conventional. Miller dispenses with the more traditional reading instruction of book reports and comprehension worksheets in favor of embracing students' choices in books and independent reading.

Her zeal for reading is infectious and inspiring—and the results are remarkable. No matter how far behind Miller's students may be when they enter her 6th grade classroom, her students read an average of 40 books a year, achieve high scores on standardized tests, and internalize a love for books and reading that lasts long after they've left her class.

Travel alongside the author as she leads her students to discover the ample rewards of reading and literature. Her secrets include:

• Affirming the reader in every student
• Supporting students' reading choices
• Carving out extra reading time
• Modeling authentic reading behaviors
• Discarding time-worn reading assignments
• Developing a classroom library with high-interest books

Rich with classroom examples and practical advice, and stitched together with the thread of Miller's passionate voice, this book will help teachers support students of all levels on their path to reading success. It points a way out of the nation's literacy crisis.

At one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book—that string of confused, alien ciphers—shivered into meaning. Words spoke to you, gave up their secrets; at that moment, whole universes opened. You became, irrevocably, a reader.

Noted essayist Alberto Manguel moves from this essential moment to explore the 6000-year-old conversation between words and that magician without whom the book would be a lifeless object: the reader. Manguel lingers over reading as seduction, as rebellion, as obsession, and goes on to trace the never-before-told story of the reader's progress from clay tablet to scroll, codex to CD-ROM.