Chelsea Brandwein
Managing Editor

This summer, Samo’s Summer Reading Committee, headed by English teacher Meredith Louria, is going big. After the announcement of Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle as the summer reading assignment, the committee created a website for discussion forums.

“We think it’s important to promote the book and get people interested,” sophomore committee member and webmaster Matthew Ware said. “So we created a social website composed of pages and open discussion forums where people can learn about, find a copy of and discuss the summer reading book.”

While the website will be mainly geared toward discussions on The Glass Castle, other discussions will take place for grade-level specific repertoire.

The website has already had a positive response.

“I think that a website is a great idea because it will allow students of all intellectual capacities to share their thoughts and analysis with each other,” junior Chloe Cohen said. “I think that the forum will be especially beneficial for underclassmen, who may not have as much of a grasp on literary analysis.”

While many welcome the creation of this discussion forum, others believe it will have no effect on the summer reading experience.

“I don’t think that having a website will make people more aware of the novel,” junior Jonathan Chin said. “Kids will decide to either read the book or not read it.”

Nevertheless, several Samo students and faculty members have already signed up for website membership.

Create an account at samohireads.com and start blogging.

Julia Gerhardt contributed to this article.

cbrandwein@thesamohi.comG