Photo courtesy of reporter Addison Woods.

  Reading can be extremely beneficial to any San Luis Obispo High School student. Finding an interesting book for an English assignment is crucial when striving for a good grade. 

  Therefore, being paired up with a quality and well-matched book is necessary when analyzing a text. Bestselling crime author C.L. Taylor endorsed analyzing your favorite books as a way of learning, saying it helped influence her writing in such a big way. When a reader tries to write a literary analysis about a book they have no interest in, it is extremely difficult so making sure they’ll be entertained by the story is essential. 

  “Matching yourself to the right book is really about you connecting. So when I’m helping students find books I’m always asking them what their interests are, what they do in their free time, what keeps their attention, and what’s the last book that they read that they liked. Those are things that are important to consider and it’s really hard to analyze something if you have no interest in reading it. So the time that you’re going to spend reading it might as well be valuable, quality time with your book. There are so many good books out there,” said English teacher Lynnly Sainsbury.

  One book to consider is “Every Last Word” by Tamara Ireland Stone. The book follows a girl overcoming the difficulties of her OCD. There are many parallels and insights in this book that would be great for an English essay or to help thoroughly understand OCD.                                                                                                                                                                                       

  “Right now I would recommend ‘Stamped’ by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi because the subtitle is: how to be an anti-racist. I think that’s just important work that we all need to look at. It’s non-fiction, and there’s fiction incorporated in it but it’s just a really good novel about how culture can be stamped out. If I could name two, I would also go to anything by Angie Thomas, her three books out right now were all really good stories about black culture that I think is important for all of us to be aware of,” said Sainsbury. 

  Goodreads describes “All the Bright Places” by Jennifer Niven as “A compelling and beautiful story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who intends to die.” In 2020, producer Brett Haley released “All the Bright Places,” the movie. And having a movie to watch after finishing a book can make it worthwhile. 

  “‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ is a great coming-of-age novel and I think it’s a great quick read for adolescents. It was so good, I read it in one day,” said reporter Erika Spargo. 

  Any of these books could potentially lead to a very perceptive report and further your understanding of current topics. “Right now in honors English, we’re taking on a Latinx book project. This is Latinx history month so I really wanted my students to experience such an important culture to California,” said Sainsbury. 

  Now is the time to explore books that the reader connects with. 

Source: Goodreads.com