Choosing Books

One of the most important things to think about when you're getting your kid reading is making sure you're sure your child is reading books that are a good fit for them.  One important part of this is making sure they have the opportunity to read books that interest them.  When kids are picking out books they need to have choices.  Let kids make choices about what they want to read about.  I know you have the whole Junie B. Jones book series on the shelf, but if your little girl is going through a huge animal phase they may prefer the Puppy Pals books, or perhaps even some non-fiction.  Your older son loved the realistic fiction series, The Magic Tree House, but if your younger son loves aliens, perhaps he'd prefer the Space Brat series.  Think about how hard it is as an adult to start a book you're just not in the mood for.  Kids have the SAME problem.  If they're interested, they'll read.  If not, well...

Difficulty is also important to consider and can be difficult to figure out off the cuff.  Even as a teacher, I'll pull books off of my shelf, start reading them with a kid, and think, "oh no, I forgot how hard this part was..."  Never fear, there are a few ways to figure out the difficulty of books, and one of them is easy enough for kids to use alone!


1.  If you are pre-planning your trip to the book store or the library, you could use a website such as www.arbookfind.com.  This site allows you to either type in the title of a book or search through some of their book lists and it will tell you the approximate grade equivalency of the book.  For example, the book A Chair For My Mother is rated as a BL (book level) 3.4.  This means it should be appropriate for the average child to read independently about half way through 3rd grade.  On downside of this is that it's based on an average, and let's face it, how often are kids exactly average?

2.  Observe your child reading to themselves.  If they can sit and read by themselves and stay engaged, the book is probably at a good level for them.  If they sit down with the book, but you can soon see them "wandering" mentally or physically, the book is probably too easy or too hard.

3. (This is the easy one kids can do independently!!!)  Teach your child the three finger rule.  Have your child read the first page or two of the book they've chosen (two pages with few words, one page with a lot of words, you want about 100 words).  As they are reading, they should hold up a finger for every word they cannot read.  If they get to the point that they are holding up three fingers (hence the name of the rule) the book is probably too hard to read alone and they should find another one.

Of course, if they are really attached to a book that is too hard, feel free to get it anyway and read it with them!  If they want to read, right on!  That's what we're working for!