by Stephanie Affinito. She is the author of Leading Literate Lives. This is the third entry in the Bring Back Whole Book Reading series.
As we head into the summer reading season, many of us are eagerly building our seasonal to-be-read stacks and helping our students do the same. Building our stack often involves choosing genres, authors and topics we love, adding books that fellow readers have enjoyed and keeping up with the new releases of the season. All of these strategies help us build a stack of books that we will enjoy reading, but what if we started choosing books to help us feel better too?
There’s an entire field of research that explores reading as a wellness practice with physical and emotional benefits in addition to the cognitive benefits most of us are familiar with. It’s called bibliotherapy and to put it simply, it means helping people feel better through books.
Book choice is at the heart of bibliotherapy. With a few key questions, we can choose books that can help us grow in our actual lives in addition to our reading lives. Reflect on the following:
- Who do I want to be?
- How do I want to feel?
- What do I want to do?
Our responses to these questions help us choose books that we will not only enjoy, but will help us grow into the kind of person we want to be in the coming season.
How can books do this? The answer lies in the mirror neurons in our brains: the neurons that fire when we witness, watch, or read about an experience happening to someone else.
If we choose our books carefully, we can fire the mirror neurons in our brain that will help make who we want to be, how we want to feel, and what we want to do feel more accessible and reachable in our own lives by choosing books that mimic what we hope for. For example, when we consume something complicated and dense, we tend to be more introspective. Here are a few examples of questions you could be asking yourself paired with a potential book:
- Are you struggling to fit in and make peace with your changing body? Read Rebecca Morrison’s THE BLUE DRESS to help you find your way through that difficult time.
- Do you wish for a group of friends that accept you for who you are and band together through thick and thin? Try THE UNLIKELY HEROES CLUB by Kate Foster.
- Do you wish you were traveling to a beach this summer or had more adventure to fill your days? Add KAYA OF THE OCEAN by Gloria Huang to your stack.
Plan Your Reading
This summer, experiment with choosing books that can help you grow into the kind of person you want to be. Start by reflecting on the three questions shared above (try journaling or using the chart below as an outlet!). Choose books that help you explore those themes by asking your librarian or local bookseller for ideas, or try a simple Google search. Read the books with an open mind and heart and see how they make you feel.
You might find this simple printable helpful as you build a summer stack that embraces this spirit of bibliotherapy. Plus, it helps you plan your summer writing experiences to do the same!
While books are meant to be enjoyed, they can also become portals to a new way of thinking, feeling and moving in the world. When readers unlock that kind of magic in a book, they’ll find comfort, support and inspiration for life. Here’s to a wonderful season of Summer reading!
Stephanie Affinito is an educator in the Department of Literacy Teaching and Learning at the University at Albany in New York. She has a deep love of literacy coaching and supporting teachers’ learning through technology. Stephanie creates spaces for authentic teacher learning that build expertise, spark professional curiosity and foster intentional reflection to re-imagine teaching and learning for students. She is the author of Literacy Coaching: Teaching and Learning with Digital Tools and Technology and Leading Literate Lives: Habits and Mindsets for Reimagining Classroom Practice. She presents regularly at state and national conferences on literacy coaching, teacher collaboration, and supporting teachers’ reading, writing, and learning through innovative technology.
