Teen Read Week!!! Why is Reading Comprehension Important?

Hello everyone! It's Day 3 of the Teen Read Week blog tour hosted by Sarah at Inklined.

  Here's today's schedule!                 
  8:00—Inklined

10:00—Blog of a (Maybe) Teen Author

4:00—Paulina Czarnecki

6:00—Ramblings of a Young Author (You're truly!)

8:00—Inklined

 

  To start off, here's a little paragraph about me: My name is Bethany, I'm an aspiring teenage writer, and just like all the other aspiring teenage writers, I would love to be published one day. But I have a lot of work to do. Besides writing, I LOVE acting, singing, reading, hanging out with friends, laughing maniacally, and just having an all out good time. I love my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and everything I do, I do for Him.

 And here's a bit about this blog: This blog is relatively new, and I'm still trying to get it on it's feet. Because, to tell the truth, I don't always know what to blog about. Mainly, it is where I post my book reviews, occasional thoughts on life, and I hope to soon share some writing tips. It is for other young writers/readers to relate and (I hope) enjoy.

    Now, on to the official post!

  I was originally planning to write a blog post on showing description in your writing, before I realized that this is Teen READ Week. I guess my blog post will have to wait another day. So what, I find myself wondering, could I say, that would be of interest, be of use to any of you?

 Let's talk about reading comprehension. Now... don't start groaning! I know a lot of the time, we, as teens tend to speed read through books. Yes, we all do, and have done it. Why is it so important to read and understand? Well, you could read something completely wrong, for instance. Or, you could skip over a sentence (happens to me...) But what IS reading comprehension?

 Some words can be confusing. You probably know many now, but every once in a while a strange one will pop up... like facetious. When we're reading a book, and we come to a hard word, we tend to read slower, trying to sound the word out, figure what it means. In the process of reading, the rest of the sentence could be disrupted, and you might never know what it said.

 So what am I supposed to do? you ask. Should I read the entire dictionary?! (Sarcasm- though I do think reading the dictionary would be very cool.) But no. No. No. No. You don't always have to be in a hurry to read a story- though often times it's necessary. For me, I enjoy the slow experience of getting to know the characters. But if you're a naturally fast reader... well that's great! What I'm saying is, don't read so fast that you lose part of the story, part of the vocabulary. If a story needs to be told, it should be told in its entirety. So if you do come across a difficult word that disrupts the flow, go on and get that dictionary, look the word up, and start the sentence or paragraph over, and return to the flow. You'll learn something, and enjoy the story more for it. 

 And that's all I have to say about that! 

Writing is so important, for all ages. Story telling is one of the greatest gifts God has given us. In it, we learn so much, can be inspired, or go through a wide range of emotions. Here are some of my favorite word crafters, and some books they have written.

 Wayne Thomas Batson -  Door Within, Pirate Series, Berinfell Prophecies, The Dark Sea Annals. (He writes fantasy, and it is so good. He is my greatest inspiration.)

 Shannon Hale - The Princess Academy, Goose Girl. (Another amazing fantasy author! )

 Jill Williamson - Replication, The New Recruit. (She writes spec fic, or "weird books for teens.")

Francine Rivers - The Last Sin Eater, Redeeming Love. (Miss Rivers writes wonderful historical fiction.)

 And those are just a few. I highly recommend these authors, they will exercise your imagination! So that's all I have to say, for now. I hope this post has been interesting in any way, and don't forget to check out the rest of the day's posts!

 For those of you waiting for a tidbit of my story... here's a few sentences... What do you think?

 

-->

 As he passed another hopeful young lady, her eyes large and bright, he caught sight of the honey colored hair of the girl standing next to her. His breath hitched in his throat, and he fumbled for something intelligent to say. Finally, in an almost inaudible whisper, he spoke one word; one name.

 “Anya?” A pair of frightened green eyes turned to him. They pleaded with him, and Elric saw a deep dread hanging there, as if being chosen were a death sentence.

 Have a lovely day!

  

 P.S. If you were unsure, facetious means
Treating serious issues with deliberately inappropriate humor; flippant.