By Anna Mefford
It all started with our shared love for the writer Colleen Hoover. On the first week of school, sophomore Katy Scott introduced me to a new English teacher, Ms. Parker. We were talking about our summers and our summer reads and it was then we spent about thirty minutes about Colleen’s books (we like to call her by her first name). Ms. Parker and I quickly became very good friends.
Since then we have said hi to each other in the hallways and have given updates about what books we want to read. I told her about this book I saw on “booktok” (a TikTok about good reads) called A Little Life. She said she saw that TikTok too and had already ordered the book. We realized we should read it together and create a book club.
Both of us fell in love with Colleen when we read It Ends With Us, a love story that ends up taking an unfortunate turn. We both have concluded that her books are fun, easy, and will always make you cry. Colleen has gotten some controversy recently because some of her thriller books make you question the mindset of the writer. But no matter what “I am team Colleen,” Ms. Parker said.
Ms. Parker grew up in Savannah and went to Country Day which “is very similar to Lovett,” she said. She has been a teacher for 3 years, working at Brookwood for two and Lovett for one. She likes Lovett because the classes are smaller. “I feel like I can connect with the students more,” she said.
Ms. Parker did not grow up reading or particularly enjoying English. “The writing was either right or wrong,” she lamented, adding how they did not have that much creative freedom.
This all changed in her AP Lang class when they read Wild, a memoir by Cheryl Strayed. Ms. Parker felt that she related to the book, and was able to have a lot of creative freedom when writing about it.
“Wild was a jumpstart to my respect for literature,” she said.
Her favorite book is Catcher in the Rye. She described how she loved teaching it and how relatable it is.
“I want to be the catcher in the rye. I feel like that’s why I am a teacher,” Ms. Parker said, referring to the main character’s desire to support young people and protect them from the dark realities of the world.
Ms. Parker now tries to make the books her classes read more relatable to the students. She wants her students to feel empowered to share their thoughts in writing and class. And while she thinks there is value to teaching the “classics,” sometimes the students are not willing to listen because they don’t connect to the books,” Ms. Parker said.
Ms. Parker explained how it can be a challenge not to be able to choose the books she teaches, she does get “to choose lessons I make, which I try to make creative and fun.” For example, her class is reading Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and in class, they are comparing Shakespeare with Olivia Rodrigo. “They both give very similar messages but the students just don’t realize it,” she said.
Her 10th-grade class read Life of Pi at the beginning of the year, which she then tried to get her friends to read in their “friend book club.” However, they said no because they did not want her to teach them the book. Ms. Parker explained how she was excited about our book club because we would be able to talk about “the deep stuff.”
Our first book was going to be A Little Life, but we have decided to move that back to Christmas break because it’s 800 pages. We decided to read Colleen Hoover’s new book, Too Late. We thought this was fitting because it’s an easy book to read during the school year and won’t take us that long. I also think it’s only right if our first book is Colleen Hoover considering that’s how we first bonded.
We both have ordered our books and are going to start reading probably next week or during Thanksgiving break. We encourage anyone to join, however, based on my experiences with Hoover’s books you should be prepared to cry.
