I picked this book up in hopes of solving the problems of the universe. Or to at least get students to read more, so they can figure out for themselves how awesome it is. In the book, Donalyn Miller describes how she implements reading instruction primarily through independent reading of student-selected novels. At the beginning of the year, she places a lot of focus on getting to know her students' interests and reading background. Then she utilizes both the school library and her own classroom library (which sounds like every teachers' dream) to match each student with several books that cater to those interests. Impressively, she challenges her students to read 40 books in one year. To help students meet this challenge, she carves out a lot of time during the school week to allow students to read. She also looks for ways to incorporate students' reading into standards based learning. She justifies her practices by sharing anecdotes from students and telli...