Some New Jersey schools are building a community of readers through a program called One Book, One School. Started by a Seattle librarian about ten years ago, One Book programs strive to get students reading and to build a sense of community through a shared experience.

The challenge, of course, is finding a book that will appeal to a wide range of people and reading abilities.

"That's very much a challenge," said Allentown principal Christopher Nagy. "We said: Will this be good for all ability-level students? Will this meet students' interest? Is it a book that can be read across all disciplines? I want to have a conversation about one book taking place among all students."

Schools vary in how strongly they enforce reading the selected book. "We wanted to create that shared experience. We didn't want to make it something punitive," said Hunterdon Central Regional High School superintendent Lisa Brady. She estimated that 75 percent of the 3,200 students read their school's One Book selection.

Student reaction varies as well. "At first I thought, 'This is ridiculous.' But you see people reading it," said Michael Thomas, 17. "It means some kid I don't know is a little bit more like me, and me a little bit more like him."

To me, that sure sounds like building a community.

Reading A-Z books could easily be adapted for an elementary school One Book program. There are over 1,000 titles spanning 27 levels of reading difficulty with 50 of these titles written to multiple levels of difficulty. Subscribers can print out enough books for all participants, and students can assemble them. Best of all, students can keep the books they read, which fosters ownership and interest in reading even more.