How to Pick a Book to Read Part Two

When picking a book, it is important to look at the language of the book. Does the language sound natural to you? When you read a random page, is it relatively easy to understand? The first "O" in "Bookmatch" stands for "ordinary language." Students and adults can better pick a book they won't put down if they follow these principles during selection time.

How to Pick a Book to Read

Linda Wedwick and Jessica Ann Wutz, in their book, Bookmatch, How to Scaffold Student Book Selection for Independent Reading, give helpful advice on what readers should look for when selecting books to read. Each week I am going to present one of their ideas of something readers should do when selecting books. The "B" in Bookmatch stands for book length. All of us have only a certain amount of minutes in the day that we can devote to reading. We want to find a book that is the right length for us. Are we marathon readers that can hang in there for the long haul - or do we loose interest and put a book down before we are finished? Finding the book that is the right length, one that we will finish, is the first step in finding the right book.

Books for an Election Year

This is a good year to include some books about voting and elections in your family reading time. Family discussions about this important topic help students to understand some of the issues involved in an election. Some good ones include:

Vote! by Eileen Christelow (ages 6 and up)

So You Want to Be President? by Judith St. George (ages 8 and up)

Independent Dames: What You Never Knew About the Women and Girls of the American Revolution by Laurie Halse Anderson (ages 8 and up)

See How They Run: Campaign Dreams, Election Schemes, and the Race to the White House by Susan E. Goodman (ages 9 and up)