Our First Week Doing the #BookADay Summer Reading Challenge
May 11, 2015
I've participated sporadically in the past in Donalyn Miller's #BookADay summer reading initiative (outlined and motivated here, now in its 7th year). The idea is to read a book for every day of summer break (many participants are teachers), and share your selection on social media using the #BookADay hashtag. Donalyn says:
"Beyond the goal to read and share, #bookday celebrates reading freedom. We can choose what we read, when we read it, and how we respond to what we read. No strings. No arbitrary markers of success. The #bookday challenge is the antithesis of a summer reading contest. No one keeps score. No one competes. Everyone who reads is a winner."
There are some guidelines, but they are quite flexible. What I decided to do was share each day a favorite book from my recent reading aloud with my daughter. The selection of favorite is a bit subjective, of course. I'm basing the choice on some combination of her reaction and mine. Most days we read multiple books. Occasionally life gets in the way and we might not read anything together (particularly when my husband does the bedtime reading). But since we certainly average more than one book each day, I think we'll be able to make it through.
One week in, I've been motivated by participating in #BookADay. I'm thinking about what might be "share-worthy" as I select books. I've taken to adding my selections to the pile by my daughter's place at the breakfast table, and we are reading a bit more than usual in the mornings. The ultimate choice of which books to read still falls to her (she is allowed to reject anything, for any reason), but I've been digging out old favorites as candidates.
I have not tried to explain this whole thing to her - I'm steering clear of anything that might feel like pressure. So I'll just ask her, after we read 3 or 4 books, if there's one she liked best, and share that one. Here are the books we read in our first week:
The #BookADay challenge is working out well for us so far, and I anticipate keeping it up. I'm not sure whether I'll have time to write about our selections each week, but you can find them in the lower right-hand sidebar of my blog. And, of course, on Twitter @JensBookPage and my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook.
Are you participating in the #BookADay challenge?
© 2015 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved.