A voracious reader knows that there is nothing better than curling up with a good book and letting the author transport her to the world he has crafted with just his words. Forgetting the real world’s problems for a few moments and becoming the brave heroine or the adventurous explorer can allow the reader to escape her troubles. However, this is usually thought of as a temporary reprieve or a respite for the reader who may be dealing with deeper, emotional troubles. And what if that reader is a child, coping with the difficult changes that life often brings, such as the death of a loved one or the recent divorce of her parents? Reading can be more than a temporary distraction for the younger reader; it can be a type of therapy to help her through these difficult experiences. Bibliotherapy, the process of using stories or books to help people understand and accept difficult times in their lives, can help children navigate challenging experiences such as their parents’ divorce, the death of a loved one, and living in foster care
Bibliotherapy has a full and rich history that dates back to ancient Greece where libraries were considered sacred places of healing, but the term did not come about until much later (“Bibliotherapy”). The term “Bibliotherapy” was used for the first time in a 1916 article in The Atlantic Monthly. Author Samuel McChord Carothers tells of visiting with an acquaintance, referred to only as Dr. Bagster, who ran a “Biblio-therapeutic” clinic where he
One of the fundamental principles of any young adult novel is its relatability. Oftentimes, teenagers are forced to read outdated, complicated written works for school for the sake of introducing them to the literary canon. More often than not, teenagers cannot relate to these works due to a variety of factors: the language is complex and difficult to read, there are no exciting characters or plot events, or it’s just plain old boring. As a result, teenagers turn to young adult novels as a safe haven—it is where they find books they can actually relate to. Consequently, any worthwhile young adult novel has to be both interesting and relatable, risking limited success if the latter is absent. Without a doubt, Eliot Schrefer’s Endangered is nothing short of interesting, documenting the exciting tale of a young girl’s journey throughout the Democratic Republic of Congo during heightened civil unrest. However, when it comes to the relatability of his novel, Schrefer takes a risk as a result of his setting and plot choices, but still succeeds in presenting something teenagers can relate to through the character of Sophie.
Richard Rodriguez, in the passage “Remedial Reading” from his autobiography “Hunger of Memory”(1982), promotes active reading as a developer of one’s mind. He justifies his position by describing his initial experiences with reading, specifically his attachment to the reading. Rodriguez’s anecdote functions as an encourager of stubborn minds trying to read and displaying its potential to change their life for the better. Rodriguez uses a very descriptive style that may be too verbose for children but compliments the verbosity with enough explanation of his purpose for his message to be known or ascertained.
Throughout all of time, literature has played an important role in people’s lives. Books are more than just stories to laugh at, cry with, or fall asleep to, but books can teach. Books can teach a person a simple task such as baking cookies or an extremely complex one such as solving for the derivative of a trigonometric path and its parabolic motion. Whatever the subject, whomever the reader, books can teach people many lessons. One of the most important lessons that a book can teach a reader is a lesson about himself, about the difficulties of life, and about living a good life. As time has passed, so has literature itself. Older books focused on historical events, fictional poetry, and important figures; however, books now have evolved to
I have never been as comfortable with people made of flesh and bone than I have been with those made of words. Whatever information I lose in the contours of the human face, I have no trouble locating in the unchanging, permanent text of a book. There is something about literature that felt safe to me; the worlds created within far more welcoming to little girls with problems fitting in than the one outside the pages. For this reason, fiction, from Harry Potter to The Book Thief, has remained my greatest passion ever since I learned to read.
Having a connection with a book and having it be comparable to an event that a child id going through can affect them tremendously.
A person’s eventual welfare has very little to do with the adversities or difficulties that might bring them down, but is solely dependent on how they choose to handle their misfortunes. As C.S. Lewis said, “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” These words will encourage readers to know that good things are ahead. Often when going through some ill luck, it can be hard to see the benefits of the process, and this quote encourages readers to know that it is not for nothing. To teach kids these values, authors use bibliotherapy (use of books to help children understand with specific situations) and critical literacy (the ability to consider various points of view) in children’s
Dana Gioia persuades her audience through a mix of emotions. With a lack of reading, young adults are missing out on the joys and challenges of literature.They are bypassing the cultural, emotional, and historical benefits of books and works of literature. By doing this, they are damaging their civic, personal, and economic health.
Before we divulge into the topic of this essay, let me begin by stating that neither the author of the main source, Steven Johnson, nor I intend to devalue books or look down upon them. In his book, Everything Bad Is Good For You, he starts off talking about the importance of books. He says, “We should all encourage our kids to read more, to develop a comfort with and an appetite for reading” (Johnson 21). Reading provides many different benefits, some including “concentration, the ability to make sense of words, to follow narrative threads, to sculpt imagined worlds out of mere sentences on pages” (Johnson 23). As an avid reader myself, I have always had an interest in books.
The thin rustic pages scrape past my loose fingers as I sit engaged. My heart pounds harder and faster with every word my eyes pass over. My ears hear nothing, even within booming noise. My complete focus is on the book that lays in my hand with a laminated cover, and I have no choice but to submit to the content. My breath tastes of spearmint and the aroma of fresh paper floats past my nose. I couldn’t resist but delve into the worlds and mysteries that books hold. Once opened, everything around me becomes a distant blur. I am hooked. Books have always created an escape for creativity and fancies to run free. Books are used as a medium for reason. Books are formative to the development of human beings. In my instance, books changed my life.
When adolescences experiences life changing moments it is difficult to cope with because they are still going through a process of self-discovery. Teenagers tend to think the situations they experience could negatively impact them for the rest of their lives so any guidance they receiver will comfort them. The literature young adults are exposed to impacts their thoughts while emotionally resonating with them. Young adult novels have the power to inspire teens to become better citizens or they can serve as a piece of hope when they are feeling at their lowest. Suggesting novels to young adults that discuss topics such as mental health, specifically suicide and the effects it has on the family and friends of the people who committed
I viewed reading as a chore, was often unenthused, and would mostly annotate on the overarching themes without gathering any meaning from them. Books were merely a series of words printed on paper. This school year, however, I began to understand the allure reading has to offer. I have grown to appreciate reading and the insights a book can offer. When reading our numerous texts, I was able to live vicariously through the characters of the books and relate aspects of their lives to my own. Because all of the books from English I pertain to coming of age, I was able to not only learn about maturation as a process, but understand how it pertains to my own life. Through protagonists such as Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye or Esperanza from The House on Mango Street, I learned about my “misguided desire to preserve childhood innocence” and to empower feminism similar to Holden and Esperanza respectively (Heart of Gold, Raghuram). Gradually, I have finally developed the ability to relate to novels and its characters amidst writing my own story.Whether it be thematic elements or the details of a case I am working on, I have become more observant to even the most trivial details. Now when I read, I not only look at the themes, motifs, and symbols, but also repeated phrases or situations that parallel each others as well as the symbolic meaning behind some ambiguous phrases or scenes. Reading now, in contrast to last summer, is a
It may be cliché, but books have always held a spot close to my heart. When I was three I had a book called Bitsy Witch that went wherever I did. When I was seven, my mom read a chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone every night. In middle school, I worked my way through the entire children’s section at my local library. In high school, I took every English class offered, and when I entered college I to compromise with my family that I would also pursue a pre-professional program. My time outside of class was spent on my pre-professional degree until, my senior year in college. I took two classes that focused on children’s and young adult texts. Before those classes, I hadn’t realized that specializing in Children’s literature was
It is nice to take a seat, relax, and break open a book of yours to read. With nothing else in mind, you embark on an adventure as the words guide you through your journey. This is the idea a reader normally accompany the feeling of reading a book. For many other people, like me before, they find it dreadfully painful as for each page turned is like trying to get closer to escape from captivity. I am unsure when my hatred associated with literature started, maybe caused by the hauntingly boring books I was forced to read by my former teachers. However, as time goes by, my attitude towards books gradually lifted when I was unchained from my shackles and allowed the freedom to choose my books. It wasn't that the books were bad, well, maybe, but
“Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are,” (Cooley). Reading has impacted us in many ways throughout our lives. Often time’s books give people different perspectives on their lives. People with high stress levels often find comfort in reading books to take their mind off of their concerns. Sometimes, people just need to take a step back from their life and relax for a while; therefore, reading is a great tool. Reading all kinds of books has also helped me become a better writer. There are many different books that have impacted me over the years.
I love books because my books love me back . In moments of distress literature guides me. When I am heavy hearted, I turn to my favorite novels, they reassure me that even in the worst situation good fate always wins . When I am lonely, I reacquaint myself with the safe and familiar characters that I have grew to love. When I am happy, I smile because I have lived the lives of warriors, enchantresses, and even the commonday person. Although the emotional connection between literature and myself is imperishable, there was a time in my life when that bond was nonexistent. However, for one to understand the significant impact stories have had on my life, one must know my life. Thus this story begins with my childhood. A conventional upbringing of sorts but of course my childhood doesn't begin with me. It begins with my parents. My parents met each other at high school when they were fourteen years old . Call it destiny, or mere luck, this one cue meet would define their lives for the next twenty two years. My parents fell quickly and passionately in love. Their devotion for one another as an imminent as their fallout, however, we are not there yet. We are at the bittersweet moments of young love. The moments that make one believe in eternity although these moments themselves cease to last just as long. My parents own version of forever welcomed a young little girl named Nicte Impala Perez on March 18th 1998. In that moment, my parents believed that the three of us could defeat