"Just one," said Ted.

    "Cool," Dave muttered.

    "But I want you to read that one book really, really well," Ted added, looking straight at Dave.

    "Are we going to have to write book reports?" asked Claudia.

    I could hear a little nervousness in her voice. Claudia is not fond of writing. She doesn't spell very well, and she has a hard time remembering the rules of punctuation. Don't misunderstand - Claudia's very bright. She's just not crazy about school. She'd rather express herself through art than through words.

    "Yup," said Ted, folding his arms.

    I saw Claudia grimace.

    "But I'm not looking for typical book reports where you tell the whole plot, blah, blah, blah," Ted continued. "For this book report, I want you to tell me what the book meant to you. How it affected you. Did it make you cry? Change an opinion? Teach you something?" Ted was looking around the room, making eye contact with each of us. "The best fiction does have an impact on the reader. We become the people we are partly through what we read. I want to hear how a book added to your life." "What if we just think it's boring?" Dave asked.

    "Then try another book. And keep trying, until you find one that means something to you. If nothing on the list grabs you, talk to me. I'll offer some other suggestions. I'm sure we can find one book you'll like." Dave grumbled a little under his breath. Ted just ignored him. "In case you haven't figured it out, my mission here is to make you care about reading," he said, smiling.

    Cary raised his hand. (I should mention that he manages to make that motion look cool instead of geeky.) "Okay," he said when Ted called on him, "so that's our fiction project. What about the biography thing?" "Glad you asked," Ted answered. "I think you'll all enjoy this one. What I want each of you to do is write a biography." I heard groans. "Of Madame Curie or something?" Rachel asked. She sounded deathly bored.