“Your hold at the Miami Public Library is ready to borrow,” my Libby notification popped up, with a small photo of Onyx Storm.
Yesssss! I whisper screamed, then remembered I was only 35% through Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo. I love Acevedo’s YA, and I was very excited to start her first novel for adults. But I hadn’t been feeling too thrilled about reading it lately. It’s not that I didn’t like the book, but there are a lot of characters and jumping back and forth through time, so I was always a bit confused as I read. The worst part: I never wanted to go back to it, and I was always having to reorient.
I’ll have to just dedicate more time to reading this week so I can finish it and be able to start Onyx Storm, I thought, and then I caught myself.
Why?
Why would I force myself to dedicate more time to a book that I’m not enjoying? Isn’t The Storygraph’s motto “Because life’s too short for a book you’re not in the mood for”? Didn’t I teach a lesson about abandoning books earlier in the year?
What were the guidelines we came up with together?
- Choose wisely (read the blurb; do you know the author?; do you think you’ll be interested?). — Okay, I did this.
- Give the book a real try, at least 80 pages. — Check.
- Read it every day for at least 3 days to see if you get in the flow. — I tried! I’ve been reading every day for over a week!
- If you still aren’t into it, you can abandon it, but you have to journal a quick reason why. — You don’t need to tell me twice! That’s a slice!
I’m no better or worse if I finish or don’t finish this book, I reminded myself. But I’ll be a whole lot happier if I just give myself permission to abandon it and crack open the third book in a fantasy series that I know I’ll enjoy.
The next day, at school, we introduced the Engagement Continuum to our students during morning meeting. As we had them self-assess for math, investigations, and read aloud, I realized something.
“Your temperature check has me thinking,” I said out loud. “Do we need to abandon our read aloud?”
Their eyes widened in that did-she-really-just-say-that way that my students tend to do when I say something out of their scope of things-teachers-say.
I shared with them my own personal debacle with Family Lore over the weekend.
“Here’s what I’m noticing: Many of you are disengaging, some of you are interested, but the energy is low. We’ve already read about 100 pages. And honestly, it’s not very fun for Ms. Kim and I to read to you, because we can tell you’re checked out!” I looked around at the nodding heads. “So… what do you say?”
It was an emphatic yes.
“Wait,” M said. “Can we still read one of the ones from our list?”
I laughed and initially responded with playful sarcasm. Then I told them we’d be starting Refugee. Cue the cheers.
And that’s how I abandoned two books this week, replacing them with ones I know I’ll love.
Writing With Abandon 
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