Tutoring Tales--Year's End

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Wednesday was my last Reading Pals session for this year. I don't think I mentioned that I ended the year with two Pals, a 2nd grader and a 3rd grader. I'd split my sessions between the two young ladies since they were at different levels, and that seemed to work out well.  They left with bookbags filled with new and used books, and they each gave me a lovely hand drawn card to remember them by.

I cannot say enough what a delight it is to work with young readers. Even when we had our rough spots--and there were plenty of those--seeing the comprehension and skill levels rise simply from more reading made my day brighter. I've told the Reading Pals coordinators that I'm available to keep reading this summer, and I'll definitely be back in the autumn. Kudos to the United Way and the Alachua County School District for putting this program in place.

I ended the year by giving each of my Pals a special bookmark of her own. While I'm not a collector, over the years I've accumulated some bookmarks, naturally, and there are some I keep on hand for particular books--the one from the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum goes in science fiction novels, the one from the (sadly, closed) Gotham Books goes in non-fiction, my leather ACLD (public library) Foundation bookmark goes in hardcover fiction and my other metal clip Foundation bookmark is for paperbacks.

In fact, I love books and bookmarks so much that it annoys me when I use the bookmark feature on my Sony Pocket eReader. Their "bookmark" is a folded down corner of a page.  Even virtual mutilation of a book disturbs me!

Do you have special bookmarks? Do you save them for particular books or genres?


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