Looking back on my Essential Question, I would say I was able to answer it. My question was a good frame for my Senior Project, and I was able to answer it by reading some books, reading reviews for those books, and interviewing people in different parts of the publishing process, like authors, agents, and more.

While I had a sense of what I would do and learn during my Senior Project, I definitely had to adjust my expectations. Before the six weeks started, I thought I would be devoting all six hours each day for reading. Given the amount of time I’d have each day for reading and knowing how quickly I can get through a book, I reasoned I would be reading 2-3 books a week. And this very well might have been the case, had I been able to actually sit down for six hours straight and do nothing but read, but I quickly realized that I did not have the focus for that. Six hours a day is much longer than I expected, so I had to adjust that expectation of getting through so many books.

As my goals were answering my Essential Question and learning more about the publishing process than I knew going into this project, I was able to meet my goals. I don’t think of reading a certain number of books as a goal as much as I view it as something I’d have liked to do, and while I read fewer books than I had anticipated, I still learned so much.

Some challenges I faced throughout my project was writing book reviews. At first, I found it very difficult and wasn’t sure how to go about it. I actually wasn’t even able to finish writing my first review, it was so difficult. I was able to overcome this challenge by reading a bunch of reviews on websites like The New York Times, NPR, PBS Books, The Guardian, and more. The most helpful reviews for me were the ones I found on Goodreads; they were written more casually and weren’t as professional as the ones I had read on those other sites, so it felt more like what I would be able to write.

Some risks I took were ordering books blindly! When I created the list of books I wanted to read for my Senior Project, I just took recommendations I got off of TikTok and Goodreads. Normally, when I order books for myself, I read a preview of the book to make sure I like the way the author writes. I also tend to stick to a certain genre and style – YA, told in the first-person, and with single narration. When I ordered these books, I didn’t know anything about them other than the short synopsis I had read on Goodreads, which is sort of a risk for me. Overall, the risk paid off because I read a lot of new genres I wouldn’t have normally read, like biographical and historical fiction books, and also books told with multiple, alternating perspectives. The only time it didn’t pay off was when I came across a book I very much disliked, but had to read the whole thing. If I would’ve read a preview of it I would have instantly realized it wasn’t the book for me just based on the author’s writing style, but oh well. I guess it was good practice in getting through books I dislike.

I’m more confident in my critical reading skills after having done this project. I was also able to understand that I don’t have as good of an attention span as I once thought, which is good to know.

My Senior Project has definitely influenced my future planning in terms of work. Working in the publishing industry sounds very interesting and fun to me, and as of right now that’s what I’d like to do!

One thing I’d like my audience to understand from my presentation is how the intentions of authors may not always align with how the reader perceives the story. Something as seemingly simple as the gender of the character can affect the way it reads for a reader. Similarly, two readers with two different ~lenses~ can read the same book and take away different meanings.

I might demonstrate my learning with a gallery and a brief, 2-3 minute presentation. In my gallery I would include the book reviews I did as well as transcripts of the interviews I had.