Read-i-cide

I just received an email about a new book entitled Readicide. It appears to be a book mostly for teachers by a teacher of 22 years about how schools are "killing reading and what you can do about it." I am presuming that the "you" is referring to teachers.

A nice chunk of the book is available online. http://www.stenhouse.com/shop/pc/viewprd.asp?idProduct=9158&r=sb090204&R...

What's your take on this?

The blurb looks promising. "Teaching to the test" is one of the main problems. Let's hear from TeacherDad on this one....

Well, as a teacher myself (though not of reading), I think that there are still issues besides "teaching to the test".

What does everyone think about book choice when it comes to this? We started talking about this in another thread on this board...

Not long ago here in UK a publisher (I'm fairly sure it was the 'Everyman' series) was upset because it had a scheme for donating books to school libraries. Schools often got about £500 or more of free books. It was upset because one school decided not to have a library any more and I think the publisher requested that donated books be returned. There was quite a lot of correspondence in the press about the issue but of course this is part of a trend not only in schools but also in public libraries. As yet another ex-teacher (physics rather than English) I think this is a turn for the worse.

edited to add that the Everyman series has being going for a long time, certainly since since my teenage years in the 1950s, and aimed to publish the 'classics' in pocket editions at an affordable price.

The main problem is that teachers' are still using books that have long been considered torture by most children because some "expert" said they were good. The best example I can think of is Thoreau's Walden. It was generally hated by about 90% of the honors students at my school, but it was still taught every year.