How Do I Help Reluctant Readers Find the Right Book?

This is a part of the Burning Questions blog series. At the end of each post, you will find resource links and a link to a one-page PDF with the information in the blog — including resources.

To answer this question, I feel like you first must ask two questions: What does “reluctant reader” mean? And what is a “right book”?

I hesitate to use the term “reluctant” reader. Author Laurie Halse Anderson recently tweeted:

Many times, a reluctant reader is one who is reluctant to read the books put in front of them but would read if she found the “right” book. Likewise, the “reluctant” read-er may be one who is struggling with reading and needs support without being made to feel like they are different and somehow not a part of the real reading community of the class.

And sometimes “reluctant” really means resistant reader. Somewhere (or many wheres) these kids had negative experiences with reading and just don’t want to do it.

No matter the reason, the answer is to find the “right” book. But what does “right” book mean? Again, that depends so much on the reader. There are no short an-swers; no 1-2-3 that will automatically give you the right title. You have to be pa-tient and persistent. And you have to be a reader.

It’s hard to think of recommendations when you don’t read. However, that does not mean you must read every single book out there or even in your classroom library. Being a reader, I know about books and authors and genres in ways I wouldn’t know if I didn’t read. I draw on my personal reading life to help find the right book for kids.

Even if you are a reader and your students have access to great books in your classroom, you will still have to help a kid who doesn’t have a reading life figure out how to find “right” books. This starts with a conversation.

And I do mean, sitting down and talking one-on-one with a kid, asking questions and really listening to what he says and doesn’t say. Why don’t they read? When did they stop reading? What kind of stories do they like? What are they willing to try?

From conversation, you should be able to recommend 3 to 4 books for the reader to check out, preview, decide which one he wants to try out. Give her permission to abandon the book after 10 or so pages and try another one. Maybe even read a few pages with him. If you can, get her hooked in a series, so she’ll know where to go for her next book.

The goal is to have kids – all kids—fall in love with reading, so much so that they become lifelong readers. This may seem like a lofty goal for a “reluctant” reader who can’t seem to find the “right” book.

We open the doors of the world for kids when we take the time, not to find a Lexile or reading level, but to find a book they just can’t put down. Or we close doors for a lifetime.

We owe it to all our kids to be patient and persist in our pursuit to help all readers find the right book. And the next right book.