Why I Love Captain Underpants

This is nowhere near the first time I've come across the information in the link that follows. Everything from my education as an English teacher through my experience as first a high school and now public librarian has emphasized the importance of recreational reading. It doesn't matter what people read nearly as much as the fact that they are reading. In terms of the general education, health, and welfare of the population, literature snobs have no idea what they're talking about. Reading should be fun, and if that means Captain Underpants, Harry Potter, James Patterson, or any other best seller, then that's great.

If you are reading this col­umn, chances are you are more successful than the average person, more involved in your community and less likely to be in prison.

That is not because of anything I have written. It is because you have chosen to read.

A new study by the Na­tional Endowment for the Arts suggests that reading transforms lives. "Regular reading not only boosts the likelihood of an individual's academic and economic success -- facts that are not especially surprising -- but it also seems to awaken a person's social and civic sense," wrote Dana Gioia, chairman of the NEA. . . .

. . . the reading test scores for 9-year-olds are at an all-time high.

These young readers are also the only group where a majority still reads for fun. . . .

Creating lifelong readers