“Everybody talks about wanting to change things and help and fix, but ultimately all you can do is fix yourself. And that's a lot. Because if you can fix yourself, it has a ripple effect.” ~ Rob Reiner

You may often hear about the ripple effect, but how often do you get to actually experience it? I mean, truly experience it with an awareness that allows you to connect the dots? It happened to me today in my library.

It started out as a typical interaction with a student. I was eating lunch and my assistant came in to tell me that a student needed my help before the end of the period. I immediately did what any one would do, right? I headed out of the workroom into the library to find the said student.

The student was happy to see me because she said she needed to find books to read. She promptly told me her criteria: romance, a challenge and something she would like. This is somewhat similar to when a student comes in and needs a book which they know nothing about, except that the cover is blue! We began to wander around the library, I showed her a couple of books, steered her toward my "just read and rated" shelf and to the display of "Best Teen Fiction". We chatted about the books.

On this shelf was a book by A.S. King, the author of our Westborough Reads Together community read from last year, Please Ignore Vera Dietz. Not only was the program fun, collaborative and creative, but it has had lasting and far reaching effects. Which brings me back to the story....

And that's when the magic happened.

I pulled the book, Everybody Sees the Ants, from the shelf. It was as if we were suddenly in a scene from a movie. The action slowed, the sounds became muted and the focus was on the emotion in the moment. All of the emotion of the discussions from the community were lifted from the shelf with this book. The student felt it, and so did I.

The book is not a romance. The book will most likely challenge her. I am confident she will like it. I am also confident, she will carry the ripple with her while reading the book and for a long time after.

This is how I connected the dots today. This is why I don't believe it when I hear that teens don't like to read. This is why we must all look for the connections, experience the emotions and watch for the spreading effects of a ripple.