Reading FAQ, by Frank Smith

Reading FAQWhat It’s About: A lifetime of research, thinking and writing about reading distilled into one short book. This book answers the questions we all have about reading and a few that we haven’t even known to ask. This is another book that is not about language teaching but gives language teachers the oomph to get their students reading more.

Quotable Quotes: “We remember things best when they are organized with everything else we know, when they come with stories attached, rather than as isolated bits of information.” p. 45

“First someone reads to us, then with us, then we take off on our own.” p. 66

“So how can anyone help you read before you can read for yourself? By reading with you. That is how learning to read begins.—first people read to you, then they read with you, and finally they give up because you have taken control of your own reading. And don’t want anyone else to interfere.” p. 40

“New words are learned with remarkable facility, especially in stories, when you are reading something that makes sense to you.” p. 40

Bonus points for: Giving us permission to read TO our students and WITH our students.

An image that could sum up this book is: Your favorite niece at age four sitting on your lap asking you to read her a picture book for the fifth time in a row, because reading is satisfying and pleasant.

Read This Book If… You want succinct answers to the questions about reading that always come up by an essential contributor to research on the nature of the reading process.