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Have you ever watched one of your students slowly stroll past bookshelf after bookshelf trying to look busy searching for a book without really putting in any effort? Reluctant readers may stop, pick up a book, glance at the back cover, and place it back on the shelf in the span of about three seconds for the sake of putting on a mildly convincing show, but it's a show that has absolutely no one convinced. As a teacher, watching students comply with their instructions to pick out an independent reading book without putting real effort into finding something they'll actually enjoy can be incredibly frustrating. It can even make your teacher heart sad. While I sometimes experience frustration when I see my students avoiding books, more often than not my reaction tends to be a sad one. I experience this sadness because I know how much joy reading can bring to someone's life, and when I see a student trying to avoid finding a book, I know that this is often because the student has never found a book that he/she loved. This means the student has yet to experience the joy of getting completely lost in an amazing story! So, how do you help your aimless strollers who would rather do just about anything than commit to a book? You hype up a modern book that appeals to their interests!
Here are five titles that I've had a lot of success with in my classroom. These titles will appeal to the sports fans in your room, the thrill seekers, the mystery fans, the history buffs, the visual learners, the daring scary story connoisseurs, and the gentle souls who love a heartwarming laugh!
Game Changer by Tommy Greenwald (sports fiction)
Game Changer is a sports novel with a hint of mystery. It's about thirteen-year-old Teddy Youngblood, who is in a coma that resulted from a football accident - an accident that may not have actually been an accident. Greenwald uses a variety of formats including dialogue, newspaper clippings, text messages, transcripts, and an online forum to tell Teddy's story. This not only help teenage readers relate to Teddy and the communication formats being used in the story, but it also creates a more dynamic and engaging reading experience overall.
Your students may also like Greenwald’s other sports books, Rivals and Dinged.
(A quick note about Game Changer - Mike Lupica, who also has many middle-grade sports novels to choose from, authored a book called Game Changers with an "s", and while it is also a great middle-grade book, they are not the same book.)
Loot by Jude Watson
(fiction - action/adventure, mystery thriller)
I love Loot! I've read it with my students as a class novel several times. The main character in Loot is March, who is the son of a famous cat burglar. While on a jewel heist, March's father falls off the roof of a building in Amsterdam, and his father's last words lead March to both a long-lost twin he never knew he had and the adventure of a lifetime. March follows in his father's footsteps and pulls off a series of jewel heists with his newfound sibling and their unlikely new friends.
The chapters in this book about a group of clever young jewel thieves are short, the book is fast-paced, and every chapter is exciting! There is a sequel to Loot titled Sting.
Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales by Nathan Hale
(historical fiction - graphic novel)
I have had more success hooking reluctant readers with the Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales series than any other book, and it makes me laugh. The reason it makes me laugh is because I knew absolutely nothing about Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood when I bought it. I thought it looked interesting, but I didn't know anything about graphic novels at the time. So the fact that the book that had me thinking, "Oh, what do I have to lose? I'll give it a try," as I plopped it into the shopping bag that only cost me five dollars to fill at my local library sale became an absolute hit in my classroom and led to me buying the whole series is quite hilarious! Sometimes you just get lucky, I guess.
In this series, Nathan Hale tells history's craziest, and often most gruesome, stories in graphic novel format. It will appeal to your history-loving and graphic novel-loving students!
If you're looking for just one to start with, I recommend starting with Raid of No Return. It is the book in the series that has been the most popular in my classroom, and I often see my students going back to it and rereading it because they just love it that much!
Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman
(horror/mystery fiction)
Skeleton Creek is so much fun, and I have read it with my students at Halloween multiple times. This story is told in journal entries written by the main character, Ryan, and video clips that his friend, Sarah, recorded to try to document proof that the old dredge in Skeleton Creek is haunted. As students read, they will find codes that they can use to watch Sarah's spooky video clips online, which is incredibly exciting for middle schoolers! Making it to the next video provides great motivation to keep your readers reading.
(There isn't anything bloody or inappropriate in the videos, however, there are several ghost jump scares. I wouldn't recommend it to students below sixth grade.)
There are five more books in this series. The sequel to Skeleton Creek is Ghost in the Machine.
Wink by Rob Harrell
(realistic fiction)
My students love this book! Reading the back of the book to them and then showing them the first Bat Pig comic strip - which is the creation of the main character, Ross Maloy - is all it takes to make them want to read it.
Wink is based on Rob Harrell's real-life experience as a young boy battling a rare eye cancer. It is both heartbreaking and hilarious and leaves students with an incredible message about perseverance and finding joy and humor in the little moments, even when life is incredibly difficult and unfair.
While my first four recommendations are quite action-packed, this book is one that will appeal to students who want something a bit more relatable, humorous, and heartwarming.
While sometimes reluctant readers are reluctant because they just haven't found a book that they've loved and truly connected with before, they can also be reluctant for other reasons that can have to do with learning disabilities and special needs. If this is the case with a reluctant reader in your classroom, there is much more to consider.
Making sure I'm creating a classroom that is inclusive and addresses the needs of all of my students is something that I feel very passionate about, which is why I wrote How Motherhood Taught Me to Create an Inclusive Classroom. If you're looking for ways to make your classroom more inclusive and help reluctant readers who come to your classroom each day with more to consider, you should definitely check it out! I hope my list helps you introduce your students to books that will become their favorite and help them learn to love reading! Please feel free to share your go-to book titles that have helped you hook reluctant readers in your classroom in the comments below!
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