Welcome to JUST READ IT!

A Substack for teachers, librarians, and Project LIT Community chapters.

Happy Friday, everyone!

My name is Jarred Amato, and I am gearing up for year #15 in the classroom. (We’re off today, and I’m hoping to finish this update before my son wakes up from his afternoon nap.) For the first 13 years, I taught middle and high school English in Nashville, and in the fall of 2016, my students and I founded Project LIT Community with the goal of increasing book access and promoting a love of reading. Within a few years, our class project transformed into a grassroots literacy movement with more than 2,000 “chapters” across all 50 states — all led by incredible students and educators. Together, we accomplished a lot both locally and nationally, and while the past few years have been incredibly hard for me (and possibly many of you), I am thrilled to re-connect with all of you in this wonderful community.

In the past, our conversations generally took place on Twitter and our monthly newsletters came via Mailchimp. Moving forward, you can expect updates, announcements, resources, book giveaways, Q & As, conversations, etc. here on Substack. I’m new to the platform, but I believe it’s going the perfect spot for our community.

I know that many of us find ourselves in new roles, schools, and/or seasons of life. I plan to share more details and update our list of chapter leaders in the coming weeks. At this time, however, here is no action required on your end (and no hard feelings at all if you’d like to unsubscribe). My only ask is this: begin thinking about the MG (middle grade) and YA (young adult) titles that you and your students have loved over the past few years. We’ll get to work on our 2023-24 Project LIT Book Club collections shortly.

In the meantime, wishing all of you a wonderful long weekend and a healthy, happy school year. Thanks so much for your patience with me, and more importantly, thanks for all you do to support and champion our young people every day.

As always, happy reading,

Jarred