What’s CB Reading?

In the energy and excitement of high school life, how are CB students and faculty finding the time to slow down and read?

Face it: it can take an excruciatingly long time to finish a book. With intense college prep courses, CB students often find themselves drowning in piles of homework, while teachers often find themselves in the same situation with ungraded assignments and papers.

In the hustle and bustle of CB life, it can be hard to slow down and just read a book. But no matter how difficult it is, there are some students and faculty who have managed to find the time to squeeze reading into their busy schedules.

“I breathe everyday, I brush my teeth everyday. It’s part of living,” explains literature teacher, Ms. Maureen Wanket, on how she finds time to read in her free time. “I read because I love to read.”

So just what are these Falcons reading? Action-packed science fiction novels about warring alien races? What about a touching Old Yeller-esque story about a young boy and his dog?

First, the Talon spoke to avid reader, Maddy Mason (’16). Maddy’s actually reading three different books right now, but her main focus is on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, a book at has recently been made into a stage adaptation. It’s no surprise that one of CB’s most well-known thespians is reading this mystery-novel-turned-Broadway-play.

“I love it!” Maddy cheers. “It makes me so happy whenever I read it.”

The book is about a boy named Christopher who sets out to investigate the death of his neighbor’s dog, but along the way he discovers lots of other mysteries. The novel focuses on lots of important themes such as social disability — the protagonist struggles with autism — but also deals with them in a way that is humorous and family-friendly.

“It’s kind of a family book,” she says. “I would definitely recommend it.”

If you’re having trouble finding the free time to read, Maddy suggests that you “read before you go to bed, instead of going on the Internet, because that helps your mind slow down.” Or you could read at lunch.

“There’s no shame in sitting alone at lunch with a book.” Maddy explains.

Maddy likes to squeeze reading time in whenever she can.

“I always have at least thirty minutes of free time, so I’ll just sit down and read,” the senior shares. “And Ms. Wanket allows for free-read Mondays, so that’s really helpful, I can just bring whatever book I want.”

Speaking of Ms. Wanket, the charismatic literature teacher is reading a book called The Scamp by Jennifer Pashley, a murder mystery meets Southern Gothic. The novel focuses on Rayelle Reed, a woman who longs to get out of her tiny town and tags along on a detective’s search for a few girls that have recently gone missing. According to the official summary of the book, it’s a tale of “the issues of family origins and the bonds between mothers, daughters, and sisters.”

“It’s fabulous. The writing is superb,” Ms. Wanket says. “It’s really intense.”

“I respect writers who write about real people—people who are poor, people who have a struggle, people who are trying to make their way, even though it’s rough,” Ms. Wanket explains.

It’s no alien saga or heartwarming dog story, but The Scamp still sounds like it might be a really worthwhile read. But Ms. Wanket says she would not recommend the book to most of her students though, due to the somewhat graphic nature of the book.

While The Scamp might be a tough read for some of CB’s students, it might be a good choice for all you faculty or alumni looking for a suspenseful tale.

Our last Falcon reader is Daniel McCarthy (’16), who’s working on getting through not just two books, but two series.

“I am currently reading the first book in the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which is a bit over 500 pages, and The Lost Symbol, the third book in the da Vinci Code [Robert Langdon] series, which is just under 500 pages,” Daniel explains.

Whew, that’s a lot of pages.

The Lord of the Rings is a fantasy-adventure series that details the history of J.R.R. Tolkien’s mystical world of Middle Earth, while The Lost Symbol is yet another mystery novel, focusing on world renowned symbologist, Robert Langdon, and the “clandestine world of Masonic secrets.”

Although Daniel’s schedule is jam-packed with five AP classes, he still finds that he has enough spare time to get some reading done.

“I still find time to read after I finish my homework, in the car on the way to school, or even on weekends” Daniel says.

Daniel also uses the powers of modern technology to get his reading done on his phone.

“Anyone that feels that they don’t have time to read should get the kindle app on their phone,” he says. “It’s extremely easy to download a book and I can pull it out almost anywhere whenever I get bored.”

So there you have it, CB. Sure there are no alien battles or heartwarming dog tales (unless you call the investigation of a dog murder “heartwarming”), but they certainly sound like some good reads. So why not drive down to Barnes and Noble this weekend and pick up a book?