By: Elizabeth Rowland

In the book Passionate Readers- The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child; Pernille Ripp speaks of the importance of having a classroom library full of high-quality texts assessable to students. She stated; “So the message that my classroom library sends is that there is always another book waiting, there is always another chance at falling in love or remaining in love with reading.” (Ripp, 2018, page 40). This really made me think about my classroom library and I decided it was time to add some new books to it. Instead of purchasing books that I felt the library needed, I asked my students and bought books based off of their recommendations or wants. When I told students that the new books had arrived, they were so excited to read them. I also had students go book shopping and create a list of books they want to read. Then once they finish a book, they can look at their list and get the next book on their list. Students loved creating their "Books I want to Read" list and getting to talk with their classmates about the books they planned to read. I have never seen kids so excited to want to read.