Reading by the Numbers

By Susan Straight

Illustrator: Alain Pilon

Does Accelerated Reading really promote a love of literature, or just a love of points? Harry Potter scores 44; Hamlet gets 7.

“Reading by the Numbers,” by Susan Straight, is reprinted with permission from The New York Times. You can read it in the print version of Rethinking Schools Winter 2009-10 on p. 25 or access it online.

Susan Straight is a well-known novelist, essayist, and children’s book author. She wrote The Friskative Dog and the National Book Award finalist Highwire Moon. Her most recent novel is A Million Nightingales.

Included in:

Volume 24, No.2

Winter 2009/2010