The English Department at Natick High School, like most school systems, have spent years developing diverse summer reading lists for each grade level. They have endeavored to have many reading levels and tastes represented in the suggested titles. Each grade level was assigned one required title and a list of several titles from which to select a second book for the free choice read. In September, the students were given a test to assess whether or not they had read the two books. A worksheet was provided with the reading lists to assist students in preparing for this test. The successful completion rate of this program was not encouraging. The main focus of summer reading is to encourage a lifelong habit of reading and to help students maintain their reading skills over the summer. But they weren't reading! The Natick High English Department reached the frustration point three years ago. The Department had many new teachers who thought to try a new innovative approach. They had read about "The Rochester Model". The city of Rochester, N.Y. had begun a reading campaign, "One book, one city" promoting everyone to read and discuss a single book, in this case Ernest Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying. (This model has also been used in Chicago, Seattle, etc.) The city promoted it on billboards, sides of buses, newspapers, radio, etc.

The English teachers decided to try this approach with our Summer Reading program. The task of selecting a single title that would be of interest to all students, challenging enough, but not too challenging for the more reluctant readers and age appropriate as far as language, gratuitous sex or violence was complicated. Other criterion that was also considered was avoiding titles currently studied in the curriculum, or titles that had been made into a movie. The book also had to be currently available in paperback. This turned into quite a challenge! The philosophy for selection also was to have an interdisciplinary theme that could be followed up on in all departments.

The book selected for the first year of this program was John Grisham's The Street Lawyer. This was selected to tie-in with the theme of Community Service. NHS has a graduation requirement that all students must complete 30 hours of community service. The Street Lawyer deals with a lawyer giving up his lucrative law practice to represent the homeless as a "street lawyer".

The next job was the promotion of this new program. This was done with a most tantalizing approach. Signs were put up all around the building warning "It's coming!" Everyone's curiosity was piqued, what was coming? The build-up and suspense over what "it" was continued for a few weeks with morning P.A announcements cleverly designed to generate interest. Finally the big day came and "The book program" was unveiled. In addition to requiring all students to read "the book", all staff and parents were also encouraged to read it. Arrangements were made with Borders Book Store to provide students with 20% discount coupons to purchase "the book". This was quite popular with parents. Borders was well stocked with copies of "the book". All bookstores in the area were also notified to be prepared for the requests. (Over 700 copies of The Street Lawyer were sold at Borders that summer. At test time in the fall, the English teachers saw a significant (nearly 50%) increase in student participation in the summer reading program.

The challenge now was to come up with an appropriate title for the second year. This is an extremely challenging process. It was finally decided to read Alfred Lansing's Endurance. (Shipwreck at the bottom of the world by Jennifer Armstrong was an alternate title on the subject for the lower level classes.) This title was in part selected for its theme of leadership and teamwork. After all, Belichick and the New England Patriots who went on to win the Super Bowl used it!

Again, there were weeks of tantalizing clues to what the next book might be with anticipation building until the final announcement. Borders again provided discount coupons, this time a 25% coupon good on all books purchased at the time of "the book" purchase. Participation proved to be less than the previous year but still more successful than prior years. This decrease we feel was in great part due to the book selected. (It was not a hit with the students.)

We are now facing our third summer of the program and selecting the one title is our daunting challenge. Keeping in mind that our goal is to promote a love of reading, we have selected a very recent, YA novel that we feel will have widespread appeal but not be as daunting a read as Endurance. The book deals with the themes of consumerism and friendship. The setting is local which will hopefully appeal to our students. The author, who lives locally, has agreed to come to address the student body as part of our promotional campaign. But of course, I can't reveal to you the title until the "official" announcement. Stay tuned!

Future plans for this reading program that have been suggested include having some type of Senior project that will tie in the four books read over their high school summers.

We have felt this program to be a satisfying way to promote reading, but it is not without its challenges.