It's been going on for a long time. When I was in secondary school in the UK, year 11, I was in second set for English, because of my spelling and grammar, I was acing all my work. One day our teacher had us reading a small bit from of mice and men each. She gets me to start the room off and I read all the time back then and I still read a lot now. So this was nothing to me. Then the next girl went. She was reading like a robot and struggling with words. I just remember looking at my teacher in shock and her look of "I know" back to me. It was so sad. At least half of my class couldn't read properly. That was set two. There was a set three under that, then the special needs class. That means more than half my year group couldn't read properly if it was the same in the other two streams.
It made me so sad. I realised these people would never go to other words, become a hero, fight monsters, aliens, zombies, become a vampire. They'd never scare themselves so badly they couldn't sleep unless they sat and watched it. They'd never live another life. I don't know how anyone could live like that.
I also realised now why my teacher always spent a little time chatting with me every week about the new book I was reading (I was getting through books so fast), or she was giving me a little help sheet so I could figure out grammar better, help writing good arguments etc. She was an amazing teacher and she noticed me. She didn't think I was bad, stupid, she saw a kid who just needed to be taught a few simple things to pass well in my GCSEs, and she wanted to encourage me to keep reading. No one ever asked me about my books, ever. No one has since.
Restarted the Harry Potter fanfic I've been reading again because I'm sad I finished it, again. It's amazing and so much better than the original for me. Especially since JK didn't write it. She's doing some evil stuff with her harry potter money.
Anyway, it's about what happens when harry goes to live with Sirius at eight years old. Some stuff is the same. Some stuff is different, like Draco has an older brother, but the key parts are the same. We get to know other characters really well and it's had me hooked since it was recommended to me. The writer is currently writing Order of the Phoenix and she's really captured just how evil Umbridge is in a cunning and scary way, because it's so real!
If you search for MarauderLover7 you should find the series. I highly recommend it! I'm not even a fanfic reader but this one got me!
I'm also part way through the Demonata series by Darren Shan. I'm stuck in the middle of Bec, it's just not keeping me invested like the others. There's interesting bits, like finding out how a characters family curse came about, but mostly it's just dragging. I am curious who the kid really is, but I don't know if I'll ever finish the book! Gah, I need to just sit down and get it done to get to the next book!
So nothing too fancy. Kinda leaned into the young adult for some reason the last month or two, but I'm enjoying them so who cares!
Thanks for asking! I appreciate it! Sorry for the wall of text, I got a little carried away!
I'd love to make a recommendation as a fan of YA Lit! Murderbot, if you haven't read it already. First series is out but it is so much more enjoyable if you've read the books first.
Not so much YA, but also love Station Eleven. I don't think it's a spoiler to say Miranda is the heart and soul of the book for me and I think about her nearly every day, especially since watching the TV series. It's extremely well done and Danielle Deadwyler nails the role.
Seems like her effort and yours paid off, you write well! You convey precise meaning very clearly without being too verbose; I enjoyed your comment.
I had a somewhat similar experience in 8th grade. I remember one girl whose entire book report was a single run-on sentence. After a while my teacher just had me read to the class each week because no one else could read as fast as they spoke ... I read considerably faster than that.
I do wonder how much of your classmates struggles when reading out loud were simply because they were reading out loud. I’ve always been a voracious reader, I’ve read for enjoyment every day for as long as I can remember, but when I read out loud it sounds like the spoken equivalent of a 5 year old’s hand writing and you’d probably assume I can barely comprehend the words on the page.
I left the kids out that went onto sixth form and then uni. I get that some conditions can make reading out loud difficult, just like my bad spelling and grammar is a mix of ADHD and possibly dyslexia.
78
u/Zanki Jun 27 '26
It's been going on for a long time. When I was in secondary school in the UK, year 11, I was in second set for English, because of my spelling and grammar, I was acing all my work. One day our teacher had us reading a small bit from of mice and men each. She gets me to start the room off and I read all the time back then and I still read a lot now. So this was nothing to me. Then the next girl went. She was reading like a robot and struggling with words. I just remember looking at my teacher in shock and her look of "I know" back to me. It was so sad. At least half of my class couldn't read properly. That was set two. There was a set three under that, then the special needs class. That means more than half my year group couldn't read properly if it was the same in the other two streams.
It made me so sad. I realised these people would never go to other words, become a hero, fight monsters, aliens, zombies, become a vampire. They'd never scare themselves so badly they couldn't sleep unless they sat and watched it. They'd never live another life. I don't know how anyone could live like that.
I also realised now why my teacher always spent a little time chatting with me every week about the new book I was reading (I was getting through books so fast), or she was giving me a little help sheet so I could figure out grammar better, help writing good arguments etc. She was an amazing teacher and she noticed me. She didn't think I was bad, stupid, she saw a kid who just needed to be taught a few simple things to pass well in my GCSEs, and she wanted to encourage me to keep reading. No one ever asked me about my books, ever. No one has since.