Re-reading is Comfort Food

This summer has been filled with touching the past. I attended two family reunions: one for my husband's parents' 60th anniversary, and one with my side of the family. I got together with friends from previous schools, some I hadn't been with for seven years, and some I'd met with quite recently. And I had a meal with friends from high school who I hadn't seen for more than 25 years. Each encounter was filled with talk of childhood memories, shared moments, and filling in recent news.

Thinking through these get-togethers made me realize the comfort of keeping in touch with my past, whether it was remembering the wildness of my youth, or celebrating how much my children have changed, or swapping stories about places we visited together. All of these layers make up who I am today. Sometimes I forget about those layers, but seeing people from my past helps me remember, and that's comforting. I can relax into these encounters knowing that the people around me accept me for who I am, the good the bad and the ugly as it were. Touching the past with them is like comfort food.

On my walk this morning, I listened to Text Messages: Recommendations for Adolescent Readers, a podcast on ReadWriteThink.org sponsored by NCTE and IRA. In episode 62, the host, Jennifer Buehler, talked with teen librarians about how they encouraged reading with teens. One of the points they all agreed upon was that re-reading a book is OK. With all the chaos going on in a teen's life, reading an old favorite is a way to de-stress and stay in touch with something familiar and constant.

In other words, re-reading is comfort food.

As I get ready to launch the Independent Reading Program in a couple of weeks, I need to remember that there is a place for re-reading old favorites. I believe re-reading needs to be balanced with new reads, titles that stretch and challenge. But coming back to a book read a year or two ago keeps kids feeling comfortable, successful, and safe. They often find new layers the second (or third) time around, seeing characters more fully or identifying motivations they hadn't thought of before. They find foreshadowing and symbols. The work they do is deeper when re-reading, and they do it willingly because they already know they love the book.

I confess. I have books I re-read too. So I know how they feel. Just like meeting up with friends and family comforts me, connects me and deepens my understanding of who I am, re-reading a book takes me deeper into my understanding of the story. It's comforting to go back there.