Choosing a Good Book

Choosing a good book for your child and helping them to choose a book that is appropriate for their reading level can be overwhelming. Here are some good tips to help:

What is a good book?

A good book for your child is one that both challenges your child and is entertaining. Your child should enjoy what they are reading.

Choosing a challenging book:

• Let the child browse through a library.
• Be sure to say ‘yes’ often to their choices.
• Search through recommended books to gauge your child’s approximate reading level.
• Use the Five Finger Rule!
• Read difficult books together.
• If your child recognizes every word, encourage them to try something harder.

Five Finger Rule:

1. Have your child choose a book they would enjoy.
2. Open to a random page.
3. Have the child hold up a finger for each word they do not know on the page.
4. If there are more than five words, an easier book should be chosen.

Click on image for pdf.

Tips:

• Provide a mixture of books.
• Expose your child to both fiction and non-fiction.
• Take your child to the library often.
• Encourage your child to search for answers to their own questions.
• Read and reread and reread their favorite books.
• Include books which have rhyming or poetry in them.
• Check out favorites at: http://www.teachersfirst.com/100books.cfm
• Find an author the child likes and read more from them.
• Watch to ensure your child is fully engaged with the book.
• Don’t be discouraged if your child is not interested in your favorites when you were a child.
• Ask the librarian, your child’s teacher, other parents and even your children’s friends about their favorite books.

By Tracy Harrington-Atkinson

Tracy Harrington-Atkinson, mother of six, lives in the Midwest with her husband. She is a teacher, having taught elementary school to higher education, holding degrees in elementary education, a master’s in higher education and continued on to a PhD in curriculum design. She has published several titles, including Calais: The Annals of the Hidden, Rachel’s 8 and Securing Your Tent. She is currently working on a non-fiction text exploring the attributes of self-directed learners: The Five Characteristics of Self-directed Learners.