Reading Month

March 2016

For The Love of literature

Imagine
diving into a parallel
universe without ever
leaving the comfort of
your home. Adventure is
at your fingertips when you
come in contact with a good
book.
Many people claim to get
lost within their books when
reading, forgetting all of
their surroundings and living the lives of the characters in the novels.
March has become known as Reading Month.
The educational month-long process was developed by the Womens National Book Association,
and the group launched National Reading Month
in October 2007.
The mission of the WNBA is simple: increase

Harry
Potter
An ordinary eleven-year-old boy lives with his
aunt and uncle in a cupboard under
the stairs, living a miserable life That
is, until someone unexpected walks in
and informs the young boy that he is
a wizard and the adventure of the
characters take off as they embark to the best wizarding
school, Hogwarts.

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public awareness of the joy and value of shared

reading. Moving past the idea that reading makes
you smarter, it is more for the purpose of enjoyment. Authors create story lines to help develop a
connection with the reader, while proving a deeper
meaning throughout the selection.
Authors like J.K. Rowling and Rick Riordan
have influenced many other authors and sparked
the interest of many people across the world, both
children and adults.
Many series such as Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maze Runner, The Mortal Instruments, Lord of the Rings
and Twilight have caused thousands of people to
start reading and inspired many of the authors that
we read today.
The Harry Potter Series caused an entire epidemic of authors writing about magic and the
chosen one trope. The Percy Jackson series has
not fallen far behind these novels, creating more of
the supernatural element.

Ar

By Morgan Hawkes

Percy
Jackson
Percy Jackson
begins seeing monsters straight
out of Greek mythology. Percy finds
out that Zeuss lightning bolt has
been stolen, and as the main suspect,
it is up to him to find it and prove
himself innocent. With his new
friends, Percy has just ten days
to retrieve it and save his
reputation.

Fanfiction fever

Reading Month

The Generator

Hannah Taylor said.

Wattpad gives the illusion of reading a real book. Authors are
series of sto- able to create covers for their stories as well as upload chapters.
The app makes for easy reading anywhere, similar to a Kindle.
ries for years, only to be disappointed by the ending.
It allow others to express their own thoughts and
Fanfiction is when fans of a series creates
feelings by writing fanfictions, senior Ashley Treier
stories of their own, either going along with the
said.
original story or changing it completely. Authors
Archive of Our Own, often shortened to AO3, is
can keep these works to themselves to enjoy, or
similar to Fanfiction.net in the aspect of having various
share them with friends.
fandoms. The fandoms tab at the top of the site breaks
However, if the story is intended to be shared
down stories by category, including books and literature
with a larger audience, sites such as Wattpad,
as well as music and movies.
Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own have
Young creative minds turn into best selling aubeen created specifically for authors to pubPhoto by wattpad.com
thors, junior Lucy Kraemer said.
lish their fanfiction.
These sites give authors the chance to
Fanfiction.net, arguably
share their works and could possibly open
the most popular of sites due
doors to publication.
to its dead giveaway name,
I like writing fanfiction because it alstarted in 1998. The site is a large
lows me to put characters into the situarchive of fanfiction from evations that I want to see them in. The
ery fandom group of fans
story gets to go my way, senior Kristen
from various shows, books, or
Photo by MCT Campus
Vogellehner said.
stories. Works spanning
Stories such as After, It All Stared
from alternate universes Photo by fanfiction.net
Photo by archiveofourown.org
With An Apple and Broken Silence are
based around Harry Potter,
some of the lucky stories to go from the
to Percy Jackson, to Twilight.
Fanfiction allows you to see anyones view on a computer to the hard bound books on the shelf at the local book
show or story from everywhere in the world. It opens store.
Reading fanfiction is a good way to expand your reading seup lots of opinions on how people see certain situations in shows or stories differently then others, senior lections and to also get a stronger connection to reading.
Imagine

Photos by MCT Campus

I personally really love the Harry Potter series, senior Emily Williams said. It
has to be my favorite series of all time.
Other novels like The Hunger Games
and Divergent have gone more towards
the dystopian aspect and disturbing the
peace to develop a plot line.
Marchs goal for National Reading
Month is to provide opportunities to explore reading in a whole new way, aimed
at motivating students to read while having a
bit of fun in the process, and these books
are the perfect way to do that.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid was always
a childhood favorite of mine, senior
Franklyn Rice said. I loved the humor it contained.
The annual reading motivation
and awareness program now calls for
every child in the community to celebrate
reading March 2 to honor the birthday and
memory of beloved childrens book author
Dr. Seuss.
With National Reading Month now upon
us, the timing is perfect for crucial statistics.
Nearly half of kindergartners start school
unprepared.
Kids who are read to at least three
times a week are almost twice as likely
to score in the top 25 percent in reading
compared to children who were read to
less often. Yet only about half of all three
to five-year-olds are read to on a daily basis.
To help promote local support for the
well-known holiday, places such as the Detroit Public Library are showing their enthusiasm by asking you to fall in love with
reading all over again.
To Kill a Mockingbird has always been
a personal favorite of mine, senior Ben Dubois said.
Reading is the fundamental building block
to success in school, which then translates
to success in life. A love of literature can
lead to an ambition to succeed.

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Photo by b
ook
sa

The
Hunger
Games
The nation of Panem is split into
twelve districts. Each year, a male and
a female tribute are chosen at random
from each. The book follows District
12 tributes Peeta and Katniss in the
annual battle of death, The Hunger Games, challenging each
contestant to fight to survive.

Divergent
A sixteen year old girl
lives within a world where her
community is divided into five
factions. Tris must decide whether
or not she wants to stay with her family or discover who she truly is, all
while keeping a secret boiling inside
her that could be the cause of her
death.

By Arianna Endicott and Hailey Moutard following a

Benefits of reading

Reading a good book can reduce stress, increase vocabulary

By Autumn Gratti

Flip,
flip, the
turn from

one page to another.

If it was not for reading
books from such a young age,
people would not be sophisticated in the way we speak and
write.
There are ten really important benefits from reading:
mental stimulation, stress reduction, knowledge, vocabulary expansion, memory improvement, stronger analytical
thinking skills, improved focus
and communication, better
writing skills, tranquility and
free entertainment.
With all of the stress life
throws, grabbing a good book
is a easy way to relieve stress
and to get away for a while and
just dive into another world.
It really doesnt matter
what book you read, cognitive
neuropsychologist Dr. David
Lewis said. By losing yourself in a thoroughly engross-

ing book you can escape from

the worries and stresses of the
everyday world and spend a
while exploring the domain of
the authors imagination.
In addition, reading is also
a way to improve problem
solving skills. For example,
when reading an action novel,
the brain is constantly staying
active trying to figure out what
is coming next, keeping one on
ones toes.
Gaining knowledge and a
wider range of vocabulary also
comes from reading different
novels.
You should always want
to read more because the more
you read, the more you know,
my mother Sara Gratti said.
You can read for self-help,
you can read to escape reality, and you can simply read
to gain more knowledge on the
world.
It is a proven psychological fact that reading does in
fact expand the vocabulary. In

AP Psychology, students have

been given the task for the next
few weeks to read any novel
and to make a list of all the
new or unfamiliar words that
jump out. Students have been
told, this assignment is supposed to improve vocabulary and increase reading
speed.
Flip, flip, the turn
from one page to another. Page by page,
gaining
knowledge and getting
lost in a good
story.

Photo by MCT Campus