Nurturing Lifelong Readers: The Power of Near-Peer Mentoring for Young Adolescents and Their Mentors

In a program known as the Secret Society of Readers, college mentors supported young adolescent mentees with wide-reading opportunities, modeled reading behaviors, talk about books, and support for navigating the complexities of school and life. Our study focused on the use of mentored reading for expanding ways of conceptualizing literacy, positively shaping attitudes towards reading, and supporting reader identity development. Our team took a case study approach in order to better understand the program and improve it for future iterations (Stake, 1995). We found near-peer relationships were central, group dynamics truly matter, reader interests and identities were key, reader identities evolved, and time proved both structural and relational. In this article, we offer an account of the program we designed and implemented, what we learned from the experiences, and ways in which others may take this school and university partnership approach of mentored wide-reading to nurture lifelong readers.