Reader's respond to literature is somewhere on a movable point of a continuum of efferent and aesthetic stances

an active reader engaging with a text for a particular purpose was compelling

• as the older readers were more analytical in their responses and more likely to offer generalizations than were the younger readers who tended to speak in terms of carefully defined categories

what students were doing in their classrooms profoundly influenced how they were responding to the books I asked them to read outside of the classroom, and even how they read them

the opportunity to read from both aesthetic and efferent stances was important to these young readers

it was important for them to understand that there are many ways to respond and many opinions about the cultural authenticity of any given book

If we support readers as they read aesthetically, evoking their own poems, and allow them time to think, write, and talk about their experiences, reading a powerful book can become an event that just might change the world, one reader at a time

encouraging students to use their comprehensive strategies and to make various kinds of intertextual connections

allow students opportunities to think and talk about books in such a way that they understand themselves better.

Making connections between life and text and recognizing yourself in books

allow students the opportunity to evoke their own poem with the books we ask them to read before we even begin to fo anything with those books, whether discussion or action, literary study or social change.