Lucy Pevensie opened the door to a wardrobe, Harry Potter opened a letter and Elizabeth Bennet opened her mouth. Any individual can do the same and begin their journey by opening a book.

As the long-awaited summer months are finally here, and summer plans are at the top of everyone’s minds, English teachers are finding ways to encourage their students to keep reading. Some teachers have presentations containing book recommendations, while others engage their students in book swaps to provide them with more options after school gets out.

“I think people should read over the summer,” freshman Jessica Vajrala said. “[When you read], you don’t completely turn off your mind to technology. When you grow up, you have to have jobs which require you to think all the time, and reading engages your brain all the time and helps you not forget materials learned during the school year.” 

According to sophomore Nolan Park, reading is a good way to expand a person’s education, but movies and TV shows are better at storytelling.

“When you don’t read over the summer, you deprive yourself of being exposed to new words, which can improve your speaking and writing,” Park said. “[But] I don’t like reading because, if it’s made well, a movie can be a lot better because it adds music scenes and visible emotions.”

In contrast to Park, Vajrala said the freedom to imagine and create the story in her head is why she loves reading.

“Creative people like creative books because we can imagine the stories,” Vajrala said. “Reading is fun, stories are interesting, and it is better than sitting around on your phone. With creativity and imagination, you can actually learn something.”

For fans of Harry Potter that enjoy books containing magic and fantasy, Vajrala recommends “Shadowhunter” by Cassandra Clare.

“It’s two series, which is a lot, but it is really interesting,” Vajrala said. “Especially the world it is set in- it is like Harry Potter-level interesting with its own magic system. There is also fantasy and romance, which is like a real cherry on top, and [the books] aren’t too childish.”

For people interested in the mystery fiction genre, English teacher Jessica Logsdon recommends “The Inheritance Games” by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.

“This series is reminiscent of ‘Knives Out,’” Logsdon said. “Someone inherits billions of dollars from someone she did not know, and the family is put off by the patriarch’s choice. It was such a fun read, and everyone I’ve recommended it to has flown through it well.”

Not everybody likes to read. However, according to Logsdon, this could be because they read for an assignment instead of reading what they were interested in.

“I didn’t fall in love with reading until college,” Logsdon said. “It took a stern conversation with a professor and ‘The Scent of Rain and Lightning’ by Nancy Pickard, but once I read for enjoyment rather than because my teachers told me to, I finally got it.”

Reading can give a person a better understanding of concepts people have a hard time with, according to Vajrala, who experienced this while reading John Green’s “The Fault in our Stars.”

“I read this when I was 10 and it was really sad,” Vajrala said. “[After reading this book,] I understood what death was and a little bit about what cancer is, and it taught me that there is not always a happy ending, and some people just don’t come back.”

According to Logsdon, reading is a gateway to different worlds and can take readers on an adventure they can’t experience in their own life, giving them the opportunity to escape from their current reality.

“Reading has given me a much-needed outlet,” Logsdon said. “[It has] provided stability [and] consistency in times of uncertainty, and allowed me to build a community of readers around me.”