Reader's Fave

Recently I interviewed Carrie Badger for our 17th installment of Reader's Fave, a casual talk with someone who shares their favorite book. Carrie is a local public school teacher, currently teaches P.E., and lives here in Wahkiakum county. We sat down in a classroom at John C. Thomas middle school for our conversation.

As we began, Carrie shared about the book, "The Outsiders," by author S. E. Hinton. "The Outsiders" is a coming-of-age novel set in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the 1960s and the conflict between two gangs.

Carrie, who was a Language Arts teacher for 15 years, focused this interview on her reflections of teaching "The Outsiders" to 8th grade students each year. She also shared that she hadn't first read "The Outsiders" till she was an adult.

Even though she taught the book for 15 years it never grew stale for her. "There's a different perspective each year with reading the book," Carrie said. Students would reveal something new to her each year which she hadn't seen or considered before. As a teacher, "There were enough themes in "The Outsiders" to use each year." It was always a fresh read.

She further reflected about teaching reading in general. "I wanted to leave a legacy of reading ... it's leaving a legacy as a teacher ... creating care memories with the kids ... connecting with them ... there's just something about reading and teaching," she said.

Carrie shared about one student who faced many challenges. Carrie would read aloud passages from "The Outsiders" to her class. She said, "It was this kid, he had this new excitement about reading, he told me, 'I've never had someone read to me." As Carrie pointed out, "It's all about interaction with the kids." She enjoyed etting them see the power and joy of a well written story.

While she enjoys reading other books on her own time, Carrie further reflected, "There's something about connecting with others when talking about a book," as a teacher. You could see she greatly enjoyed this aspect of teaching reading – this sharing, the connecting, and seeing the kids open up, and get excited about a book and its story.

"The Outsiders" always seemed to connect and bring excitement to the students each year. She remembers how towards the end of each school year the 7th graders would be asking about the book. "I heard the excitement from the other kids .. of reading the "The Outsiders," for next year, Carrie reflected.

And may you wonderful Wahkiakum readers find a book which brings some reading excitement to you. Then maybe share and connect with others about your book.