Reading as a teenager leads to success in school and in life. It expands vocabulary, writing skills, general knowledge, comprehension skills and often helps students understand complex ideas.  Teenagers are able to escape their own life and problems for a while and reading can often give them the skills to solve their own problems as well as opening up a world outside of their own while they learn about other countries and people from different cultures.  And, for many teenagers when they find authors they enjoy, reading is fun.

I encourage all students to read at home as much as possible – whether it be the newspaper, an online blog like this one, a novel, a biography or another non-fiction book about something that interests them.  Some students don’t know what to read because they don’t know what is out there and so don’t know what they like.