A common event that takes place throughout the final weeks of school is getting a letter stating what books kids will be forced to read during the summer. Usually it is a classic or an extremely popular novel. For my grade, we must read The Hunger Games ( as if anyone has not read it) and Fahrenheit 451. I understand why schools assign summer reading (to make their students read more), but is how they are organizing it actually helping? I think not.
THE BOOKS THAT SCHOOLS ASSIGN ARE TOO FREQUENTLY CHOSEN! We are all aware of the books that schools commonly assign, for example, classics such as: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin, The Giver by Lois Lowry, et cetera. Though I do enjoy these beautiful works of literature, the constant obsession with only these few books gets old. There is a quote I use frequently when talking about this topic it is,
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”-Haruki Murakami.
This is a perfect example of why the common topics for summer reading should not be chosen. In my years of school, I have had to read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee three times for summer reading. I love the story but it gets boring when you have to constantly analyze the plot every summer.
CLASSICS ARE NOT ALWAYS A GENRE PEOPLE LIKE! Shocker! Not everyone loves the writing style of classics, since it is not the most common writing style of the modern day. How can you expect kids to love reading if they are forced to read the same genre repeatedly. Some people don't like classics and that is not a bad thing. We should not have to force people to read something they dislike.
PEOPLE SHOULD LEARN TO READ FOR FUN, NOT BECAUSE THEY NEED TO COMPLETE A PROJECT ON THE BOOKS THEY READ! Anyone can go on Spark Notes and look up the summary of the novel's plot, but to really get lost in the book is truly magical. Schools are now teaching kids to over analyze and force themselves to remember every little thing stored inside the book. This is the complete opposite purpose of reading! Reading is supposed to be magical and exciting. Who cares if you forget what someone said at a certain part of the book! All that matters is that you are enjoying the book and know what it is about,.