Kids Taught to Choose Books Choose Reading for Life
Mark W.F. Condon, Unite for Literacy vice president
The International Literacy Association (ILA) in partnership with the Children’s Book Council releases an annual Children’s Choice and Teen Choice Book Awards, which are lists of books selected by kids. (The ILA also offers lists of Young Adult Book Choices and Teacher’s Book Choices.)
Each year for decades, 12,500 youngsters from around the U.S. have participated in creating these lists by reading books and voting on their favorites—their choices. The lists offer consistently reliable selections for the most kid-enjoyable children’s books published each year. Parents, caregivers, librarians, teachers, and other children’s books lovers are encouraged to explore the lists to find current recommendations and perhaps discover the next children’s classic, like Charlotte’s Web or the Harry Potter series.
Making personal choices drives achievement
Unwavering advice for supporting any child who is learning to read is to encourage and guide independence in making satisfying personal choices about what they read. Well-chosen book suggestions by adults offer new readers tasty options for fueling their reading success. Continuing growth in lifelong literacy comes from leading children to confidently make personally rewarding book choices based on their own interests and curiosities, not from providing them with phonics lessons, rote reading sessions, or worksheets to complete.
Help kids connect with books
By talking with children as they explore library collections—print or digital—parents can help their children connect with titles and topics. For instance, while browsing the Unite for Literacy’s online library website, colorful book covers appear, making it easy for kids to find topics of interest, while helping parents gain insight into what they care about.
If kids seem overwhelmed by the size and complexity of libraries, it can be helpful to share what we adults do as we are looking for new books to read. For example, we consider what we’re interested in, authors whose books we have enjoyed, or questions for which we’re hoping to find answers. We can look at books that have been on “bestsellers’” lists. We’re careful to show how much we can learn about a book by carefully examining its cover.
We invite children into a conversation about a book that catches their eye, sharing what we “notice” about it, like what’s it may be about and why that’s interesting to them.
Additionally, many children have at least one friend who has already fallen in love with books and who is expert at choosing ones they enjoy. Invite those young avid readers to talk about how they find new and interesting books. Their insights will be very helpful for their new-reader friends who are unsure of how to select books they may enjoy.
Once kids have chosen books, allow them time to read
As kids become more confident (and joyful) in choosing appealing books, we have to make sure we carve out a minimum of 15 minutes a day to read with them or for them to read by themselves as they grow as readers. Unstructured space in their days to fully engage with books is critical to helping children become independent, life-long readers.
Aprés reading conversations
Finally, kids need affirmation for their book choices. We can offer that by talking with them about what they read.
Forget about “school” kinds of questions, like “Who’s the main character?” or “What is the central idea?” Instead, try initiating a conversation by inviting your child to “Tell me/us about your book.” “How did you choose this book?” Or, “Which character is most interesting to you?” or “What have you learned that you didn’t know before?” Note that each of these general conversation starters has the word YOU in it. That ensures that the ensuing conversation will be about the child’s experiences with the book, not about checking to see if they’ve met some academic standards or an adult's expectations.
Such casual conversations can help children come to see themselves as capable and fulfilled readers.
Invited assistance versus unrequested help
A child requesting help pronouncing or understanding a word, navigating a difficult sentence, or with “reading” a character’s unstated but implied motives, offer powerful indications that they have chosen to give literacy a chance to be a part of their lives. That chance can be defeated if well-meaning adults interfere in their book choices with statements that particular books are too easy or too hard. Rather, teach children that, any book can be a terrific choice. Further, if they don’t enjoy a book (for any reason), they should be allowed to simply put it back and select another, without having to convince us of their decision. In the future, they can return to that book and give it another go if they like.
If you’re at a library or book store and a child is interested in a book but the specific book in hand has text that is too challenging, ask a librarian or store staff for assistance in finding a few titles about the same topic with which the child can be successful. Over time, this young reader will come to appreciate that among the thousands of books in a library or store, there will always be engaging titles from which to choose. And the more sophisticated this reader becomes, the more titles will become accessible.
Patience with the search for enjoyable books and belief in the potentials of exploration are learned by watching others successfully find books to read. It’s all about hunting for personal treasures.
At the end of the day, encouraging and then allowing kids to choose what they read puts them at the center of their literacy learning lives, which is right where we hope they will forever choose to be.