Teaching Tuesday: Books for Reluctant Readers

Lovebug did not become a fan of reading independently until he discovered the Captain Underpants books. He would happily listen to me, or his sister, but reading on his own didn't interest him in the slightest. It drove me crazy.

To this day, Ironflower is still more likely to read for fun. That's her go-to activity when we turn our screens off. But when Lovebug has the right book, he too will retreat to his room and read for fun. Ever since he polished off the Captain Underpants Series, ("What do you mean he hasn't written the next one yet, Mom? I need to read it now!" I'm so not going to let him read Game of Thrones until George finishes the series), I have been on a quest to find books just as compelling

I think most kids - people, even - who claim to not like reading just haven't found the right material. And when you're trying to get your kid to read for fun, you can't worry about the potty humor in Captain Underpants or the fact that you think comic books are stupid (they're not, btw) or whatever. So, with that in mind, here are some book selections that don't show up on Scholastic's 100 Greatest books for kids list.

Lego books are ever popular around here. 

Chapter books for kids who need humor:

• Dav Pilkey's other series, Ricky Ricotta. A little less disgusting and a little easier to read than Captain Underpants. Lovebug has read some of them three times. 
• The Captain Awesome series, by Stan Kirby. These are on the easy side, but even reading (or rereading) easy materials is good for kids. 
• Lovebug loves graphic novels, which the Captain Underpants books almost are. Another one we found was DANIEL BOOM AKA LOUD BOY. There are 4 of them so far. 
• George Brown, Class Clown is another series with a lot of humor, though not quite as potty-based as Captain Underpants. 
• What's cooler than potty humor? Ninjas. Diary of a 6th Grade Ninja  starts a series about a typical 6th grader recruited into a clan of ninjas.  
• An oldie but a goodie, the My Father's Dragon trilogy includes illustrations, dragons and problem solving.
  

Chapter books for kids who like non-fiction:

• If your kiddo like animals, try the National Geographic Kids Chapter books. There are also all sorts of true stories about animal heroes, animal rescues and animal encounters.
• There are also National Geographic Readers, which have lots of information about all kinds of animals and natural phenomena, but are written more at a primary grade level. 
• Time for Kids has a biography series for kids, as well as a ton of books covering various non-fiction topics. 
• DK, creators of those cool Eyewitness books about everything, also have an interesting
   biography series. 
• Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule is technically fiction, but this story of former slaves feels very real. Definitely for kids in fourth grade or above.

Things kids can read if they "hate" books:

• American Girl magazine. Believe it or not, it's not just ads for more American Girl products. That said, it's not cheap, but your library probably has it. 
• Lego Club magazine. This one is free, but it's mostly an ad for Lego products.
• National Geographic for Kids magazine. These are awesome. Much more like a real magazine than Time for Kids.
• Sports Illustrated for Kids. Assumes a serious interest in professional sports. 
• First Altas, National Geographic's Road Atlas for Kids or any other atlas, really. 
• Travel brochures. I haven't done this for a while, but a lot of state and city tourist centers will mail brochures and travel guides for free. 
• The directions for anything - a recipe for making brownies, a how-to for making a craft, the way to play a new board game. This can also be a great way to reinforce the importance of comprehension. 
• Letters or emails from family members or friends. This is especially cool if they've got a far away cousin or close friend with whom they want to keep in touch. 

Picture books that are worth reading:

• Gail Gibbons is the queen of non-fiction picture books. She has picture books about all the things kids want to learn about:

• Patricia Polacco's books have rich illustrations, great vocabulary and feature multicultural characters.

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Scholastic Book Orders: Crack* or Whack?

*Obviously I have never tried crack. Because if I had I'm sure I'd be addicted to it, which means I'd be skinny and a lot more crazy. Anyway, "Crack or Whack?"sounded so much more fun than "highly addictive or pressure from the man?" 


I love to buy children's books. Fortunately I didn't discover this potentially creepy passion until I was a teacher and had an excuse. Now that I am a parent my excuse is twice as big (as is my ass, but that's another post). Mostly my passion comes into play at the library's used book sales, cute book stores and my obsession with my kids' Amazon wishlists. But then Ironflower started kindergarten.

Kindergarten means Scholastic book orders, baby.

The prices were so good. I knew it would help the teacher get books for Ironflower's classroom (not that she needs any, honestly, that classroom is amazing). And Ironflower would get the fun of getting new books every month. Not that I really let her pick out the books, but I do make sure that there's at least 1 book that each kid will especially like. I'm a giver.

Scholastic publishes so many wonderful books. I mean I'd be grateful to them for Harry Potter
 and Katniss Everdeen anyway, but my kids love all the photographic non-fiction and classics too. And Scooby-Doo phonics (see? I told you I pick out books the kids will like. Even if it makes me cringe). This month, though, our finances are really, really, really, tight. Like tomorrow I head back to the content-factory tight.

So why I am still staring at the Scholastic book order?

It's not like my kids don't have plenty of books. And trips to the library. Surely we could skip it for a month. Then I had this image of Ironflower being the ONLY kid in her class not getting books when the orders came in (this is completely realistic, not me being dramatic).

And then I got pissed.

I've been had. This is what Scholastic is counting on. Sure, they might say that they're just trying to give every kid the opportunity to buy books. But I used to teach in the hood. I hardly ever had even ONE kid order books. So no, they're not bringing opportunity to the masses. They're guilt-tripping the broke parents and the busy parents. They are exploiting our love for our children by making us buy their books every month.

Fucking brilliant.

Oh, and evil.

At 20 I would have organized a protest about this. At not yet 40, I think, "Well, at least they're not poisoning us or giving Michele Bachmann money." I'll rebel in my own quiet way - I'm NOT going to be guilt-tripped into ordering books this month. "Book orders are whack!" I'll yell when Ironflower asks me about it.

Next month will be a different story. It's very hard to get over crack, you know.