Publication: Life Stories By and For New Readers

• Demetrion, George
• Lestz, Michael
• Smith, Sharon W

New readers are served by these life histories because these
stories not only motivate them as readers and writers but
also because they often help to establish bonds between new
readers and the authors who are, after all, their fellow
students.

Tutors seeking reading material for new readers will find
here a rich resource for themselves as well. As one new
tutor wrote after reading several narratives, "How little
our efforts seem at the time of contact with the students,
yet how much we all learn about each other's lives in the
exchange."

Many themes and topics emerge from the narratives which
make up Life Stories By and For New Readers. These include
family life, schooling, neighborhood settings, moving from
one place to another, difficulties with the English
language, work, marriage, religion, and the decision to
tackle literacy in adulthood.