The author, Maryanne Wolf, EdD, will present two workshops in March for NCBIDA. See the NCBIDA website for details.

Book Review: Proust and the Squid
by Karleen Curlee, MSEd

For the individual who would enjoy a great synopsis of reading development, including research regarding dyslexia, Maryanne Wolf 's book Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain (New York: Harper Collins, 2007) is well worth the read.

Dr. Wolf, a neuroscientist at Tufts University and a parent of a dyslexic child, discusses the realm of reading by dividing the book into three clear-cut sections: "How the Brain Learned to Read," "How the Brain Learns to Read Over Time," and "When the Brain Can't Learn to Read." As for the book's title, Proust is the well-known French novelist often recognized for discussing abstract thoughts in long, involved prose. Much of his writing includes symbolism that is challenging, but not impossible to comprehend. The squid, on the other hand, represents the world of the concrete and, in this case, the biological aspect of reading.

In essence this book discusses not only the mechanics of reading text, but also the abstract, inferential part that comes with reading between the lines and beyond the lines. While the majority of Proust and the Squid is written from a neutral, objective standpoint, Dr. Wolf voices her opinions about the role of reading in the conclusion of her book. Dr. Wolf fears that children are becoming "a society of decoders of information, whose false sense of knowing distracts them from a deeper development of their intellectual potential. It does not need to be so, if we teach them well, a charge that is equally applicable to our children with dyslexia." Reading, then, should not be a mere mechanical, decoding activity, but one that builds personal growth and a deeper understanding of the world.

Finally, in her discussion of the digital age, she posits that just as the brain has learned to function directly with the demands of reading and writing through the centuries, the digital child will demonstrate flexibility in his response to new reading demands: "Many of our children learn to code-switch between two or more oral languages, and we can teach them also to switch between different presentations of written language and different modes of analysis. Besides this book's appropriateness for those interested in the topic of reading, Proust and the Squid would be an ideal text for beginning teacher preparation students. Wolf's writing is easy to understand, her tone is warm and inviting, and all of her major points are substantiated with detailed references for further consideration.


This review originally appeared in the Fall 2008 Inland Empire Branch of IDA's "The Resource" newsletter. This article is being reprinted with permission.