year-old Camilla Deaver loves to read. Ask her how many books she‚?ôs read since the beginning of the school year and she wrinkles her brow while she calculates the number. ‚??Sixty, or something like that,‚?ù she says. Deaver‚?ôs mother, Priscilla, says the family of six are all readers. But the Deavers are, according to a National Endowment for the Arts survey on reading, a dying breed. Media technology, the survey suggests, is the culprit in a dramatic decline in readers across the US Priscilla Deaver says the key to getting her children to read was to let them see their parents read. And read they do.? Priscilla, a 36-year-old social studies teacher, says she may have read somewhere around 90 books since the beginning of the school year herself. ‚??When I have time I read three to four books a week,‚?ù says Deaver. Aside from being big readers and modeling for their children, Priscilla and her husband Kevin did something else to improve reading time in their home. They disconnected the cable, got rid of the Internet and limit their television time to family movies on the DVD player.? And that might be one key reason her children seem to read as much as they do, the parents lowered their technological intake. With iPods, DVD players, cell phone technology, computers and gaming consoles at their finger tips, kids are finding other means to occupy their time, says the NEA survey on reading. ‚??Literary reading declined significantly in a period of rising Internet use,‚?ù states the NEA survey. ‚??From 1997 to 2003, home Internet use soared 53 percent points among 18-to-24-year olds. By another estimate, the percentile of 18-to-29-year olds with a home broadband connection climbed 25 points from 2005 to 2007.‚?ù So if you‚?ôre reading this, you may be a member of a minority. You may be part of a rapidly shrinking number of Americans who enjoy reading, or who read at all.? In 2004 the NEA launched its first survey that declared reading was at risk. Last fall, the NEA followed up that survey with a report that states reading is not only at risk, it‚?ôs suffering from a dramatic decline. The 2004 survey focused on literary readers. The follow-up 2007 report goes for a broader look at reading, declaring that ‚??Americans are reading less well,‚?ù and ‚??The declines have civic, social and economic implications.‚?ù According to the most recent survey: ‚?¢ Nearly two-thirds of employers ranked reading comprehension ‚??very important‚?ô for high school graduates. Yet 38 percent consider most high school graduates deficient in the basic skill. ‚?¢ American 15-year olds ranked 15th in average reading scores for 31 industrialized nations, behind Poland, Korea, France and Canada, among others. ‚?¢ Literary readers are more likely than non-readers to engage in positive civic and individual activities, such as volunteering, attending sports or cultural events and exercising. Reading comprehension, according to the study, is on the decline and employers are frustrated by what they see as a lack of ability to understand simple jobs because of this. At least one reader, Rosie Hale, 58, says her intense reading habit informs her ability to do her job more efficiently. ‚??I couldn‚?ôt do my job if I didn‚?ôt love to read,‚?ù says Hale, who works for the US Dept. of Agriculture and says her love of reading assists her in reading the numerous reports and documents required of her job. Hale is also a member of a book club sponsored by Page After Page Bookstore in Elizabeth City. The club, says Hale, allows her to share her love of books with fellow readers and helps each reader understand more about what they have just read. ‚??Everybody gets something different out of a book,‚?ù says Hale. ‚??Somebody brings up a point and you may have read that but everybody gives a different perspective.‚?ù Hale and her reading compatriots - she says there is one college student in her group and a mix of age ranges - share a love of traditional reading; that‚?ôs just sitting down, opening a book and reading. And while reading and a declining readership need to be addressed, some are not as concerned as others and see, perhaps, more of a shift in the way we read. ‚??Reading is not dying, it‚?ôs just that people are reading differently,‚?ù says Stephen March, novelist and professor of literature at Elizabeth City State University. ‚??It‚?ôs more intertwined with graphics. It‚?ôs more of a multimedia reading.‚?ù March is a literary novelist. That is to say his genre is serious, literary fiction rather than pop, horror or science fiction. And while he says he believes serious fiction such as his might not be as popular as it once was - titles by authors such as Roth, Bellows or even Hemmingway - the book is still somewhat popular. ‚??I think what has happened to the novel is there‚?ôs still a fairly aggressive group of novel readers in this country because they are getting published and read, but serious novels by Hemmingway and such are being replaced by pop novels that simply entertain,‚?ù says March. Entertain rather than evoke a sense of artistic appreciation in the written word; something that drives March as a reader and a writer. ‚??It‚?ôs the way it takes you to another world,‚?ù says March of reading. ‚??Then I love the structure of a work of fiction, the way it‚?ôs structured. And the artistry of writing itself.‚?ù And while March loves the artistry of serious fiction, pop culture is prevailing in other areas where the written word is concerned, as well, and it‚?ôs something the up and coming generations seem to be adjusting to just fine.? ‚??I think the poetry that we read in school, the poetry of the past, the poetry of today, has been transposed to the radio and CDs,‚?ù says March. ‚??A lot of young people grow up listening to what is poetry and poetry has an oral tradition.‚?ù March is largely referring to the influence of hip-hop lyrics on popular culture; and he sees that it is influencing his students. Students, he says, enjoy writing poetry but they‚?ôd prefer to deliver the poetry orally, rather than having it read in silence by a single reader.? So the written word is not dying and there are readers. OK, that‚?ôs fine, but what about the young people referred to in the study that appear to be at risk where reading is concerned? How are they going develop a love of reading that will, at the very least, influence their daily lives be it at work or at play? Well, schools are trying to do their part. Aside from various reading programs whose aim is to encourage young readers, teachers like Priscilla Deaver realize that while she might not teach reading or language arts, there has to be some influence in her classroom. Deaver says she believes there are not enough books aimed at absorbing a young person‚?ôs attention. And she might know this because she and husband Kevin actually do read the books their children are reading.? ‚??Kids have to have access to something they are deeply interested in,‚?ù she says. Deaver‚?ôs favorite genre is historical fiction and as a social studies teacher that‚?ôs a good fit. So she talks to her students about the books she reads. She also held a book exchange in her class. Students were told to bring in books they had read as extra credit. They put them in a bin and students were welcome to read them. She says she has seen the students reading those books, so something as simple as that appears to motivate young readers. But what about the students who have lost interest altogether and find greater satisfaction on the Internet, or on their gaming consoles? Duffy Franco says he believes he knows a way to solve that issue. As owner of Earth 383, a comic book, graphic novel and gaming shop, he is a big believer in graphic novels as a way to rekindle what he agrees is a dwindling interest in reading. ‚??They just lack some imagination,‚?ù Franco says of kids today. ‚??They are so used to video games and TV, so when they sit down to the book, I don‚?ôt think they see it in their heads. To sit down with the graphic novel, half of it (visual imagery) is right there.‚?ù Graphic novels (see related story on page 3C) can get a bad rap and people tend to think they are merely Spiderman comic books. They are not, says Franco who is currently authoring one himself.? ‚??A graphic novel is the visualization of the book,‚?ù Franco says, adding that many of the graphic versions of classics like Shakespeare‚?ôs Henry V ‚??are word for word,‚?ù the original text.? Franco believes graphic novels can launch kids into reading traditional literature. He believes it so much he says he‚?ôs been working at the regional library with the Teen Awareness Group to get kids more interested in reading.? Franco also sees reading as a fundamentally political issue; community leaders need to be more interested in getting kids to read, he says. ‚??Kids aren‚?ôt learning about what it takes to learn,‚?ù he says. ‚??Short cuts are the norm. We need to teach them to understand. Comic books and graphic novels get kids to read. And with graphic novels they also learn to appreciate art.‚?ù And one last thing. Franco points out that the authors of comic books and contemporary graphic novelists were avid readers when they were young. And without avid readers, where will we find our next generation of graphic novelists, comic book authors, or anything at all? __
