Moreno 1A Connection Must Be Made!Review of Making the Match The Right Book for the Right Reader at the Right Time,Grades 4-12ROSANNA MORENOCALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGELesesne, Teri S., Making the Match The Right Book for the Right Reader at the RightTime, Grades 4-12 Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers (2003) $21.00 (paperback) 232pp ISBN 1-57110-381-3Encouraging young adults to read can be a challenging task. In a society where videogames and reality television capture the minds of young adults, educators and parents are finding it more difficult to capture a young adults mind through reading. However, that alone is not a reason to give up on finding the right book for any young adult. Take a journey with Teri Lesesne’s book, Making the Match The Right Book forthe Right Reader at the Right Time, Grades 4-12. Lesesne takes you into theworld of a young adult and gives helpful hints on how to find the right book for the right student. Lesesne’s book focuses on three different areas that can help teachers who have had trouble with finding the right book for a young adult. The first part of the book, chapters 1-4, focuses on getting to know the kids. The second part of the book, chapters 5-7, focuses on knowing the books and the different genres. The last part, chapters 8-10, focus on making the match, in other words, helpful strategies that a teacher can use to motivate students to read. Just when you thought Lesesne hadMoreno 2given you all the right tools to get your young adults motivated to read, Lesesne finishes her book with different sets of appendices and various book lists with many book titles organized by genre. Before a teacher can recommend a book to a student, the teacher needs to get to know his/her student. Lesesne defines what a young adult is, the development of young adults, what young adults say they want to read, and strategies on getting to know students on a personal level. For the purpose of the book, a young adult is anyone from the age of ten to twenty years of age. Lesesne suggests that teachers take the time to acquaint themselves with the adolescents they work with on a daily basis. That means, get to know what type of music they are into, what they like to watch on television, and take notice of how adolescents interact with one another (17). Another concept to take into consideration is the adolescents’ development. One must keep in mind the emotional and social development a teen is undergoing. When recommending a book, teachers should keep in mind the students’ development and recommend books that will best suit the student.Recommend books that the student will be able to make a connection with. If the student cannot make a connection to a character or plot of the novel then the student will not fall in love with the novel or worse yet, will not evenbother to complete reading the novel. If figuring out an adolescent’sMoreno 3development is tough or difficult to understand, Lesesne offers a chapter which explains what young adults say they want to read.Worried about what genre to choose for an adolescent? Well, the adolescents have spoken and they say they want to read mysteries, humor, and nonfiction. Students want to read books with heightened suspense and full of excitement (33). Other students feel that humor is very important andwhatever they read must include humor. Lastly, students want to read more nonfiction. Educators spend so much time teaching fiction that nonfiction seems to be neglected even though it is something young adults would like to read. In this chapter Lesesne also included adolescent tips on what teachers should do to encourage reading. Adolescents simply want for their educators to accept their interest, let them keep the books for as long as they want, they want to meet the author if possible, and they want to listen to the book read aloud. If all of these adolescent tips do not fully satisfy you,Lesesne offers one more idea, question your students. The book has a sample questionnaire that Lesesne recommends every teacher give their students in the beginning of the year. The questionnaire is helpful because itasks the student questions about the type of books they like to read, which are their least favorite, and what they keep in mind when selecting a book. As mentioned previously, the second part of the book focuses on getting to know they books, knowing how to select good books. The great thing aboutMoreno 4this book is that it offers many tips on how to select a good book. There are specific things an educator can do to narrow down their searching field when looking for the right book. One tip is to consult review journals, such as School Library Journal and Voice of Youth Advocates, to name a few. Anothergreat tip is to consult the awards lists, which books have received awards. Just when you think you have to do more reading from another source, Lesesne reminds you that she has already created a list for you and you can find award winning titles in an appendix at the end of the book. Aside from those tips, stick to the basics. Choose books with characters, conflicts, themes, and a plot the students can make a connection to or relate to. Onceagain, if the student does not connect with the book your effort has gone to waste.While fiction must be read in every English class, teachers can choose fiction the students will enjoy. If reading poetry, Lesesne suggests the poetry is accessible to students and that the students should be able to connect to thepoetry. If reading drama in the class, stop it! Drama was meant to be acted out, not simply read. As for short stories, once again, choose a story the students will be able to make a connection with, stories with topics the students will find interesting. If you do not know what short stories to choose, the book offers an appendix with a list of short stories that many students have grown to love.Moreno 5The last part of the book is the Making a Match section. Lesesne believes reading should begin on day one of the school year. Let the students know your love to read and that reading is important to you. A way to begin reading is by using the read aloud method which consists of the three P’s: preview, practice, and personalize. To preview means to preview the material before sharing it with the students. Read it ahead of time and decide if the material is appropriate for the students. The second