Do you remember any of the books you read in school growing up?

I only truly remember reading a few like The Giver or A Wrinkle in Time. I remember STRUGGLING to get through way more – pretty much anything assigned in class. It always felt like reading out of OBLIGATION versus reading for ENJOYMENT.

The sentiment that we’re “supposed to” read this because “its a classic.”

Talk about priming myself to think of reading as an, “I have to do it” type of thing versus an, “I get to do it” type of thing.

We want our students to WANT to read; to be EXCITED about the prospect of opening a new book.

Instead of the eye rolls, slumped shoulders, and full-body moaning that often come from students, we want enthusiasm or slight curiosity at least!

I cringe at the thought of hearing another kid say, “I hate reading!” It breaks my heart because I know first hand how literally life-saving reading can be – if you find a book that speaks to you.

I’m a firm believer in the quote,

“If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.”

So how do we do this? How do we crack that tough pre-teen/teenager exterior and convince them that opening that “dry, boring” paperback or hard cover text is “worth their time”?

The entire decade I taught I was constantly working on building my classroom library. I wanted to find ways to help students see the TRUE wonder that reading actually is.

A classroom, by nature, is filled with all sorts of personalities, interests and backgrounds. So, in order to know what will appeal to this variety, you have to KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE!

Here are some things I have learned about our wonderful teenage audience that help to guide my text selection process:

• They don’t like to waste their time (Who does?). It needs to be clear to them WHY THEY SHOULD CARE. This is especially important in today’s world where they are inundated with BIG problems and things they should care about! What makes this book so special and worth putting energy towards reading it? How does this book connect to THEM? to RIGHT NOW?
• They have a short attention span (which is developmentally appropriate AND due to the beautiful/ugly beast of technology). This just means that we need to HOOK them faster and be intentional about helping them connect the dots. This is a skill we can help them build within themselves too!
• They like to dream (How fantastic!). These young lovelies have wide eyes and open hearts. They have so many thoughts about what the world could have in store for them. I’m convinced this is one of their BEST traits. It most definitely is helpful when it comes to finding novels that will tickle their fancy.

There are three main traits that I look for in a text. These three traits are directly connected to the three things I’ve learned! So let’s get started!

1. Make it Connect/Make it Matter

There are several ways that a book can meet this trait. Personally, I focus on a book’s characters or their plot.

Choose novels that have characters that share similar identities with your students. This could be as simple as characters who are roughly the same age as the students in your classroom. Though it would be even better if more parts of their identities overlapped.

For example, I like to find novels that have characters who share similar cultural backgrounds, familial relationships, or hobbies/interests as the students in my class. An added bonus is if they have great cover art or imagery. This will help students SEE that this book is something they can connect with!

A novel I recently read, The Lost Ryu by Emi Watanabe Kohen, features characters who meet several of these criteria. The two main characters are middle schoolers who live in Japan. One character is Japanese and the other is Japanese, Jewish-American. One character is male and the other is female and both are language learners.

I also like to use this as an opportunity to bring diversity and inclusion into my classroom. I was lucky enough to teach in an extremely diverse environment. So, intentionally building my classroom library to match that was critical to building a safe and welcoming space for my students.

I would argue that this is JUST AS important in a classroom that may not “look” diverse on the outside. We don’t know our students’ full stories or where there paths may take them down the road. Having texts that present them with characters and themes that may be new to them is a GREAT, simple way to help them build background knowledge and expand their perspectives. It’s possible it will give them something to connect with in a way they haven’t had the opportunity to before.

The second way a book can connect or matter to a student is through the book’s plot. Find a book that highlights an internal/external conflict that your students face or a book that addresses a current issue that student’s are being exposed to in their daily lives.

Common themes that teenagers are going to connect with are: exploring their own identity, making friends, navigating new spaces, and advocating for their rights.

Again, in reference to The Lost Ryu, both students are part of families who experienced World War II first hand. They are experiencing and learning how to navigate generational trauma. Additional themes in the text are language learning, moving, and making friends.

Between these four things alone, each student in your class is likely to be able to connect with the text in some way!

2. Dynamic Plot/Dynamic Characters

Dynamic means constant activity, change, or progress. Here we’re looking for an exciting plot and characters who go through BIG changes!

As I said before, at the teenage developmental stage, kiddos can have a hard time staying focused on one thing for a very long time. So, finding a text that is exciting or captivating and also has characters who deal with big change can be the difference between maintaining interest in a text and losing it.

A dynamic plot would be a plot that has a lot of twists and turns or unexpected outcomes. Additionally, it is a plot that features really hard issues that they have also been confronted with.

In the fantasy novel, Thirteen Witches by Jodi Lynn Anderson, the main character finds out early on that there is an ENTIRE magical aspect to the world that she had not been aware of – – which is particularly surprising because the way she finds out initially is through seeing ghosts. The story continues to unfold in unexpected ways as the character explores this new “other” world and her powers that came along with this revelation.

This book also does a great job in the dynamic character category. Dynamic characters are characters who experience big changes and through these changes have major shifts in identity or value systems because of it.

Adolescence is a period of life that is FULL of massive changes – both physically, mentally, and emotionally – and being able to read about someone who is experiencing the same thing AND getting to see how THEY handle it is not only therapeutic, but also educational.

To reference Thirteen Witches again, the main character was ALREADY dealing with the changes she was experiencing within herself and the dynamic she has with her best friend. She was then thrown into this completely NEW IDENTITY she wasn’t even aware of!

So many of our students are struggling to find themselves and find their place. Finding a text that can give them an example of this process is priceless!

3. Realistic Fiction/Fantasy

The perfect text lets students keep their head in the clouds while their feet are planted on the ground.

What I mean by this is that the text you choose – even a Fantasy novel – has components that excite the dreamer in them but also help them connect to the here and now.

I have found realistic fiction and some fantasy to be a great example of this.

With realistic fiction its probably most obvious – the realistic part is the one that connects to REAL LIFE and the fictional part let’s them dream. Many fantasy novels share the same dichotomy.

The Lost Ryu takes place in post-WWII Japan but includes dragons. Thirteen Witches takes place in the present tense, real-world but introduces us to a formerly invisible layer of magic that the world contains. Thirteen Witches is a triad so there are two MORE books that allow the reader to explore the world and follow the protagonists growth arc too!

This combination spurs their interests because they want to read more about this “unknown”, while it is also intriguing due to the ways they can see themselves in the realistic portions of the text.

Two other novels that do this very well are This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron and The Mystwick School of Musicraft by Jessica Khoury. This Poison Heart is another novel in which the world at large is unaware of its magical side. In this book, the main character recognizes she is different but soon finds out even more! She spends the novel navigating this with her family (bonus – this novel includes Greek mythology and plants as integral components of the story AND it has a sequel The Wicked Fate).

Bonus Bonus – This Poison Heart is a FANTASTIC pick for diversity and inclusion as well. When you read it you’ll understand why – I’m not giving out any spoilers here 😉

In The Mystwick School of Musicraft, the “real world” is aware of the magic but the reader spends their time being introduced to how things would look in our current world if this were true. Plus, the main character is just learning to hone her skills by starting at a new school! (See how this novel ticks the boxes for the two other traits above?)

To wrap things up,

when you are choosing novels to use in class or to recommend to your students, you want novels that make connecting easy, provide twists, turns, and growth, and contain the perfect combination of fantasy and reality.

Just MAKE SURE to spend some time SHARING THESE DETAILS with your students about the novel(s) you’ve chosen. I’ll be writing another post that gives some tips on how to do just this! Stick around to check it out 🙂

Oh, but don’t throw out any SPOILERS!! Everyone hates a spoiler!

Check out the books I’ve mentioned in the post – even if only for your own enjoyment 🙂

If you’re looking for some way for students to showcase what they’ve learned from the novels they read, make sure to check out my Book Report & Character Spotlight One-Pager resource. It’s a great way for students to combine reading comprehension & art to demonstrate their knowledge!

Just so you know, each resource I create has a link to a FREE resource inside the Terms of Use pages 😉

That’s it for now friends,

Talk soon