The Power of the plunger

During a recent school visit, some enterprising fifth graders asked me to name one of the most memorable books I had read lately. I told them the truth: a home repair manual about toilet repairs. They got very excited, so on my next school visit, I carried the book with me, and everyone had a great time studying the illustrations and text. I resolved then and there to always have at least one home repair book with me when I speak to kids or parents about reading. The point is that, despite all the government hoo-ha about standardized testing, the basic truth is this: Being able to read is crucial because WORDS HAVE POWER, and we all should plunge into reading! Okay, sermon finished, now here's an interesting aside...My repair book is really old, so I was a bit surprised when I began to realize that the layout actually looked somewhat like a contemporary graphic novel...various bits of useful art all over the page, supplemented by chunks of text here and there. Suddenly my ancient home repair library appears to be trendy.