CC: Do you like to read?

Sangay: Yes.

CC: What do you like about reading?

Sangay: I like finding out about details and facts in the story. Like, all about the characters and how they look and the things they do—stuff like that.

CC: When did you learn to read?

Sangay: In second grade. I was born in Nepal and I learned English there because I went to an American school and that’s where I learned to read. I came here in the third grade.

CC: How was the transition?

Sangay: Well, when people come from Nepal and they don’t speak English, it’s hard, but for me it was easy because I learned English in Nepal.

CC: Do you read fiction and nonfiction in school now?

Sangay: In Nepal we read more histories and that kind of thing. Here, we read more funny books, like the Wayside School series.*

CC: Did you have a reading program last year at school?

Sangay: Yes. In the middle of the day we split into two groups and one-half of the class went with one teacher and the other half went with another teacher and we read out loud and wrote stuff. We were reading newspapers and had to answer what, when and why, and had to write our own articles about it and then read it out loud to the class.

CC: Do you like that kind of reading as much as you like reading a story?

Sangay: I think it’s the same thing as stories.

CC: And do you like reading your reports or articles out loud in class?

Sangay: Yes, because everybody gives comments about what you wrote and sometimes when I write something, I understand a lot, but when I read it aloud, people help me more with it.

CC: Are you reading anything right now?

Sangay: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. My teacher says the book is better than the movie because it makes you feel stuff.

CC: Have you felt anything yet?

Sangay: No.

CC: One of the books you have with you is some of Shel Silverstein’s poetry. What do you like about poetry?

Sangay: I like it because it can be funny.

CC: Do you like serious stories?

Sangay: Just in the newspaper.

CC: Do you read at home?

Sangay: I read before I go to sleep, and when I don’t have homework, and when I get bored, like if there’s no one to play with.

*Louis Sachar, Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger (William Morrow and Company, 1995); Louis Sachar, Wayside School is Falling Down (Lothrop Lee & Shepard, 1989); Louis Sachar, Sideway Stories from Wayside School (Follett Publishing Company, 1978).

Why do you like to read? Sangay Diki | Monique Thompson | Christopher Wisell & Sam Wisell

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