Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr

The Gift of Cinder

Although I have yet to read Cinder myself, I pulled it off the shelves of my classroom library and recommended it to one of my sixth grade readers, Aisjha. Her reputation as an avid, almost on the verge of addictive, reader had proceeded her. It was not until I got to know Aisjha and her story that I understood that her time in my classroom could make or break her journey in continuing to be a lifelong reader. In the past Aisjha had been driven by the program Accelerated Reader. As a third grader she made over 400 points, which is phenomenal. In fourth grade she backslided and when she reached over 500 points in fifth grade she started to receive grief from her classmates. She had always been known as the "class reader," but now it was not "cool" any more. After seeing Aisjha struggle with this negative feedback on something so positive in her life, her parents agreed with her that she could move away from the AR program in sixth grade. I agreed with this decision and really worked on fostering the idea that reading isn't worth points, but its only worth the enjoyment. Since then, Aisjha has fallen in love with reading again. So much so that she has to sneak books into her bedroom, because her parents know that she will be reading late into the night. 

The genre Aisjha most enjoys is fantasy. Trying to get her to read from any other genre is almost like pulling teeth. But even though Cinder doesn't fall into fantasy specifically, I shared with her that this book branches off the same ideas. First of all, Aisjha will only read books in series because she gets so involved in the story that they just MUST continue. She had liked the Sisters Grimm series, so I played off of the idea that there was a since of folklore and fairy tale meshed into Cinder because of the characters. This intrigued Aisjha because when she writes her own stories she takes characters from different series and puts them in a new storyline together, almost like fanfiction. Finally, I told her that science fiction plays on the imagination, just like her beloved fantasy books. Aisjha heard me out on my recommendation, and simply left the room after telling me, "Sure, why not. I'll give it a try." I could tell she wasn't convinced. 

Aisjha devoured Cinder in two days. When I saw how far she had gotten the first day I had to run to the library in the next town to get the second book in the series, Scarlet. When the second book was finished, Aisjha came running up to me ecstatically asking for the third. With great hestiatioin, I had to tell her that it would not be out until March. She was devastated and threw her hands in the air hollering, "Whhhhhhhyyyyyy!" It was the very next day that I saw a tweet about the contest of winning and ARC copy of Cress. When I told Aisjha about the opportunity she was overjoyed. As she began to write her review she was so intent on making sure each word was absolutely perfect. Being able to receive the ARC copy would just reinforce Aisjha's love of reading and there is no student more deserving of receiving such a gift. Cress would be treasured in the hands of my student, Aisjha. 

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