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November 16, 2018

How to Help Students Choose Books They’ll Actually Love

How to help students choose books they'll actually like!
In case you didn’t know, December is Read a New Book Month! There are many books we have read and hundreds more that we have on our reading list. As seasoned readers, we know what books we like, from authors to genre, even down to preference between hard and soft covered books.

Helping students choose a book they’ll actually love is part of our jobs as librarians. We know that developing the love of reading starts with just the right book. But, the perfect book can be different for every reader! From classics to children’s books and everything in between, we think it’s safe to say that the books we choose to read determine how much we enjoy reading.

Helping students choose books they’ll love requires some thought and we have some tips to help you guide students to the perfect book.

How to Help Students Choose the Perfect Book

Librarians, teachers, parents, and guardians all play a role in developing children into readers. Here are some tips to help students pick out the right book.

Thought Process

You can help students better understand the purpose of their reading interests by walking them through the thought process of selecting the right book. Support students by verbalizing the thought process. Does the student want the book for reading pleasure, learning, or discovery? Does the student prefer fiction over non-fiction or vice versa? Help students to analyze their purpose for reading by breaking down the process.

Encouraging Students to Read New Books!

Reading new books is essential for readers to understand what books they like and don’t like! Check out these three activities you can use at your library to promote reading and help students pick up a new book.

Reading Competitions
Create a competition between each student to see who can read the most books. You can create a reading list for each grade and a prize at the end for each student who reads the full reading list. Or you can create something similar to the Sakura Medal, where students get to vote for their favorite book. Learn more about the Sakura Medal in this interview we had with two librarians!
Guess the Book in the Jar
Take a book and shred each page. Crazy to think. But, yes, shred each page! Place the shredded book in a jar. Create a list of books, including the book that is shredded. For each student who reads a book on the list, they can fill out a raffle ticket to guess the title of the shredded book in the jar. The more books a student reads, the more chances they have to guess!
Reading Walls
Your library is made to encourage reading! Take it a step further by creating reading recommendation walls. You can do something as simple as downloading a set of our reading posters and placing reading recommendations from students and teachers around the posters. Check out these examples we think would look great in your library!
 
 
 
 

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1 Comment

  1. Adriana Chan says:

    Thank you for these information. I am a librarian and would love more post like this. Ta

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