Students will see more of their own stories reflected on school bookshelves as Prince Edward Island’s novel selection committee brings in books that offer more perspectives.

The committee, made up of teachers and education staff, selects new novels to add to P.E.I. classrooms each year.

Lauren Key, who teaches English at Summerside Intermediate School, said her goal is to foster a love of reading in her students.

“We set reading goals, we talk about reading, we talk about what students are reading. We make it part of our culture here at our school,” she said.

“When you’re trying to foster a love of reading … it’s very important that they’re able to see themselves within the text.”

That means students developing a connection with the book’s characters, she said, so offering a wider range of styles for students to read is vital.

“We need to make it enjoyable and entertaining for them,” she said. “It makes it so that I can offer a stack of different books to my students.”

The novel selection committee has been making picks for classroom libraries for years now.

It’s focusing this year on Canadian content as well as books geared toward newcomers, 2SLTBTQ+ people and Indigenous stories. There will also be selections about lived experiences such as neurodivergence and anxiety.

Shellilee Ballum, the librarian at Summerside Intermediate, has been involved with the committee since it began.

She said bringing new perspectives into the classroom is crucial.

“I think having different perspectives, different types of characters in books also builds empathy for the people reading them,” Ballum said.

“That’s the magic of reading for me.”

‘We take the responsibility very seriously’

Grade 9 student Jackson Gelder enjoys reading about the points of view of others, and said it helps the reader “become a better person.”

“Whenever everybody has a book that they can see themselves in, it’s … really important and it shows a message that nobody is left behind,” he said.

Millar Perry, also a Grade 9 student, enjoys the many genres that are available to read.

“It really … puts me in the spot where I can more understand these characters or more understand what they’re going through.”

Amanda Arsenault, the province’s language arts curriculum leader for grades 7-12, said the initiative also includes graphic novels and non-fiction books.

“Large groups of students have not always been reflected in the books that are sitting on the shelves in our classrooms or in media or in literature,” she said.

“We take the responsibility very seriously to ensure that all of our students can see themselves in some books somewhere.”

Variety can also be more interesting from a teacher’s point of view, Arsenault said, and many have read the books on the shelves because of their passion and desire to support their students.

“It creates interest for our teachers,” she said. “They can move around a room and talk to 30 different students and they might get to hear about a different book every time they sit down.”

Among the new books are No Fixed Address, which centres on a teenager experiencing homelessness, and Game Face, about a hockey goaltender dealing with anxiety.

Stories like these, Ballum said, may not reflect the personal experience of every reader, but it may provide them with some insight into someone else’s experience.

“We’ll just keep choosing titles that are going to be interesting for the students but also to build that empathy piece.”

Source: CBC PEI