Alexandra Paskhaver: Reading in reading levels

I’m a very superficial person at heart, so I was horrified when I discovered that some books had age restrictions on the back.

I may not be the perfect middle school student these authors have in mind, but since when are adults discouraged from reading James Patterson? What kind of dystopian society do we live in?

I know what you’re going to say. Books have age restrictions to prevent children from seeing content that could turn them into smokers, humor columnists, or other social liability.

It’s not about stopping adults from reading children’s literature. Sure.

OK, maybe you’re right, you deep, intelligent person. But there was a time when I, at least, saw the boundaries of books quite differently.

I remember reading and writing tests in school. You got a grade from A to Z. My teacher said a 6 wasn’t good enough for me, so she had to adjust the scale a little.

You had to read a page or two out loud to the teacher. Then she would grade you based on your reading ability. I got a Q.

I never got a perfect score on a reading test. I once lost points for not reading a chapter heading out loud. “You have to read everything on the page,” the teacher told me.

The next time I lost points because I read out the page numbers. Just imagine. Some people are just never satisfied.

We had shelves in the classroom that were labeled with the reading level. You had to choose books from the shelf.

There were interesting books on other shelves. I wanted to try them out. But I was told to put the idea aside and pick up the real book. Or maybe it’s the other way around.

I thought that was stupid. Those rules were stupid. The teacher was stupid.

I did not have a “limited vocabulary.” Whoever said that was… well, they certainly weren’t very nice.

But I got stuck on shelf Q. At some point after that, my brother took me to the library. I picked out “Peter Pan.”

My brother interrupted me. “Haven’t you read it already?” he asked.

Of course I did. But it was a Q-level book. There were only about 10 of them on the classroom shelf and I was told not to take any others.

My brother wouldn’t let me leave the library until I picked out a new book, even though I protested all the way home that I wasn’t allowed and that if I did, I would be demoted to W or worse.

My brother told me that I wouldn’t learn best when I read books that were at my reading level. I would learn best when I read books that were above my reading level.

If I tried, I could learn something from any book, no matter what it was. Unless it was by James Patterson. Then it was just cheap entertainment.

OK, maybe his books have some value. Especially as kindling.

Whether your grade is a Q or a W or some letter not yet invented, my advice is the same. Read anything you want, as often as you can, as long as you’re learning something.

It doesn’t matter what reading level you’re at, if that’s important to you, you’re… well, you can fill the gap.

Alexandra Paskhaver is a software developer and writer. Both jobs require knowing where semicolons go, but she’s never quite figured it out. For more information, see her website at apaskhaver.github.io.