Author: Donalyn Miller and Susan Kelley
Book Link

This book is the follow-up to the magnificent, “The Book Whisperer.” In the vein of books that helped with my own professional growth, Miller’s first book comes a very close second to Penny Kittle’s “Book Love,” which completely changed the way I looked at reading in the classroom.

To venture into this sequel is to make a few assumptions:

• You are familiar with the author’s previous work
• You have already begun the process of getting your students to engage in independent reading
• You are building a classroom library
• You are engaging your students with their reading in some form
• In addition to allowing independent reading, you are also giving your students choice in what they read

One of my biggest regrets over the years was getting rid of shelves of books I’ve collected since high school. While I would say this was all done in the name of minimalism, the ease of replacing it with technology and getting over my own ego that people would be impressed at my vast home library (nobody was, I promise), it was really done because I moved so often I hated lugging all those books with me.

Those books would’ve made a wonderful foundation to my classroom library, but now I’m rebuilding. Thus far, I’ve managed to secure over 200 titles for it and each one has been carefully culled for maximum student engagement.

However, merely filling my classroom with books for the sake of filling it with books would be counter to the advice Miller and Kelley offer in this follow-up. This book moves beyond getting students engaged in reading and towards getting them to become lifelong readers. That’s a difficult task considering you only get students for a year… possibly even just a semester if you’re teaching high school.

Among the many salient, and inspiring, points she makes, there is an entire section into keeping your classroom library updated and how building lifelong readers goes beyond recommending a single title a student would enjoy. One thing I appreciated are the examples being used in the classroom right now and the accompanying resources to use right away.

This isn’t one of those books you just read through and put it down and get to work. It’s a book you continue to pick up and look through once you hit a new stage in your teaching. Each time, you’ll find something different.

I applaud this work and hope to see the ripples of Miller and Kelley’s work ripple outwards as teachers engage with their pedagogy. As a lifelong, prolific reader, I can appreciate its effects.