The Rights of the Reader

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In the second section, Pennac turns his attention to how the French school system teaches books. He comments: First, Pennac describes how young children are introduced to the pleasures of reading. Then he examines how they're put off. Reading becomes a dreary chore. It's good for you. Like bran flakes or jogging. Why would anyone want to do that? Third, presumably drawing on his own experiences as a teacher, he describes how a class of surly teenagers rediscover the joys of reading. In the first class of a new term, their teacher opens a book and reads aloud to them. The teenagers are initially scornful, then gradually seduced and finally even inspired not just to finish the book that their teacher had begun for them, but to explore more and more books (as long as they're not on the syllabus). Pennac finishes with a 10-point manifesto: the 10 rights that should be granted to all readers. The first is "the right not to read". The second is "the right to skip". The other eight are equally wise and liberating.

It’s time to make a revolution! And the good thing is that Daniel Pennac has already written the manifesto. This is self-explanatory; read what you want and don’t let anyone guilt you or shame you about your choice of reading. If you find reading something informative helpful because it helps you understand our current situation, good for you. But if you want to read something light and romantic with a guaranteed happy ending because you just want to escape, that's just as good for you! The right to mistake a book for real life El amor por los libros: un dogma tan universalmente aceptado y tan poco practicado que asusta. Tan dañino como todos los dogmas. ¿Cómo se puede sentir amor por algo sagrado, monolítico, incuestionable?No cayeron en la cuenta de que, en aquellas lecturas infantiles, además de el placer de escuchar las historias, el niño encontraba una satisfacción aún mayor: compartirlas con ellos, sus padres. Incluso cuando comenzó a leer él, lo hacía acompañado (y no nos engañemos, no le entusiasmaba leer, sino descubrir que era capaz de hacerlo). Cada noche sus padres le abrían las puertas de un mundo de magia y fantasía y se adentraban en él con el niño de la mano, y todo ello por amor, gratis, sin pedirle nada a cambio. Con el paso de los años, esos mismos padres que regalaban saber y fantasía comenzaron a prestarla con intereses, se convierten en usureros: el chico debe leer solo, debe comprender lo que lee y debe demostrar que lo ha hecho: tiene que devolver la inversión que se ha hecho en él.

Do you prefer not to know in detail the name of each plant that was in the garden of the nineteenth-century Russian lady? Could you live without it? On a similar note, Peter Cooper, states that working from home is “antisocial” by nature, and argues that it was a concept that came around due to a global pandemic and it should be a one-off, not a setter of new trends.” In this section, Pennac lists ten Rights of the Reader and offers a brief discussion of each. It was my favorite part of the book, the piece to which I could best relate and the easiest lesson to take away with me. To keep this post from developing into a book itself, I’ll just refer you to my earlier post about The Rights of the Reader, in which I list and discuss each of the ten rights. My Thoughts A thoughtful reader pointed out a wonderful list written by French author Daniel Pennac, in The Rights of the Reader.

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Using the poster as a springboard, I asked the children in my class what their rights and responsibilities were in the writing classroom. Below, you can see what they came up with.