Mark Twain once said, “A man who does not read has no advantage over those who cannot read.” His words ring especially true today with the growing number of young readers who prefer screens over books. We spoke with three teachers and librarians who are committed to helping these so-called reluctant readers turn the page to find books that will change their reading lives.
Sarah Armstrong learned early on from her grandparents that books were the key to everything good in life. Now, as a K–5 reading specialist at Overlook Elementary in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and a former middle school teacher, she is helping kids unlock a lifelong love of learning. “No kid is born with an aversion to reading,” Armstrong said, “but I think as reading becomes harder for kids, some shy away from it. It could be embarrassing and/or frustrating for them.”
Armstrong believes her main role is to make reading more accessible and help create a positive experience. For her K–2 students, she often assists them with developing sight word recognition. She encourages them to write stories using their growing vocabulary to familiarize themselves with the words, to see how they are used, and why they are important to learn. “This way, they’re taking greater ownership of their reading and writing,” Armstrong said, “and, they say, ‘Oh, wow, I wrote a book!’ ”
She also tries to engage her reluctant readers with popular book characters like Dog Man and Bluey. “I’ll say, ‘Now, if you like this movie or television show, you may like the books and want to write your own stories with these characters,’ ” Armstrong said.
She also does a deep dive into students’ interests to match them with books. “It’s always about finding things that they’re interested in. Everything can be accessible to them, if you take the time to look!”
In addition to promoting agency through individual book choice, she values the power of read-alouds, whether of picture books or middle grade titles. With picture books, she will do “picture walks” with her readers before reading the stories, in which they discuss things they notice in the illustrations and make predictions about what they think will happen in the book. With older readers, she chooses words from the book and asks them to explore connections between the words before reading the story together.
Armstrong sees that these types of activities, among others, help her reluctant readers build bridges to texts, create connections to characters, and develop their own writing. She hopes that these things will turn them into lifelong readers. “I hope that reading gives them the space where they can get pulled into a story,” Armstrong said, “and that they might discover in a book someone going through exactly what they’re going through and feel like they’re not alone.”
This belief in the value of reading has always been part of her life. “I was raised by my grandparents. My grandmother’s family had been through the Holocaust, and my grandfather’s family lived through The Troubles in Northern Ireland,” Armstrong said. “They believed that nothing was more important than education. You got an education, and you got out. They taught me that education was key to everything you can experience, and that the entry point is reading.”
She enlists her students’ parents to embrace this philosophy. “I tell them, ‘Just read with your kids, and we’ll take care of the rest!’ ” Armstrong said, “Model for them what it’s like to get lost in a story and help them see that books aren’t things that you have to read but things you get to read!”
A librarian/media specialist in Northern Florida, Elaine (her surname and school name have been withheld for privacy reasons) didn’t always like to read or to visit the library. Over the years, she grew to love both and is now working to help get books into reluctant readers’ hands and hearts.
“I use everything in my background that I can,” Elaine said. “This starts with the way I welcome all of my readers into our library. I put every effort into facilitating relationships with my students any way I can, being approachable, happy to see them, and interested in their lives.”
She puts great care into creating a library space with a positive atmosphere. “I make sure that it’s a really relaxed, happy environment where they can find places to sit and lounge around,” she said, “and no one’s going to yell at them for putting their feet up.”
Elaine uses a mix of interactive lessons, book displays, and book talks, among other things, to engage all of her readers. At the same time, she’s laser-focused on her reluctant readers, too. “I spend a lot of time seeking out kids who refuse to check out books. They’ll walk out of the door without books, and I have to hunt them down,” she said. “I try to get to them during the next library visit, and spend time with them to turn them on to books they might like.”
She will often turn to graphic novels because of their popularity with many readers, as well as high-interest nonfiction. To ensure she has the titles they want, she takes suggestions from her students for future purchases.
To help them find more books to love, she does “book passes” with her kids: she fills several bins with different types of books, puts kids in groups of four or five, and gives them two minutes to look through each book. “A lot of kids are surprised to discover they like something they might not normally check out. For example, they may find that they like realistic fiction instead of fantasy. It’s a good way to expand their reading in different genres.”
Impacting her students’ reading lives has always been Elaine’s main career goal. “Reading’s the most fundamental and important thing we need to do in life. If you can read, you can learn and do so many things. This is why I became a librarian,” she said.
Surrounded by books through her formative years, Annisha Jeffries thought she would be a teacher like her beloved grandmother, until she was “bitten by the library bug.” Today, she is the youth services manager and a veteran librarian at Ohio’s Cleveland Library, and host of the Reading in the Middle podcast.
While Jeffries’s main library duties include overseeing a staff of seven, she is involved in every aspect of the youth department’s reader advisory and literary programs to help reluctant readers, whom she calls “young scholars,” turn into lifelong readers.
Her mission of serving readers starts with getting personal. “We like to personalize our book recommendations by asking about hobbies, interests, and favorite television shows, and we recommend books that match them,” she said.
Their matching process has what Jeffries calls a “welcoming vibe” and a few important caveats. “Our job is to listen first and to remove the pressure of ‘performing’ as a reader and shift it towards discovering and reflecting. We never say, ‘You should read this.’ Instead, we say, ‘Let’s find you something that you want to read,’ and we talk about how being a reader does not mean loving all the books; it means finding the right ones for you.”
Jeffries believes this approach is key to helping all readers. She and her team also focus on “flipping the script” when working with the most reluctant of readers. “We’re not saying that they’re failing as readers, but that reading is failing them,” she said. “What we try to do is to create moments where our young scholars feel seen and successful.”
She and her colleagues are also redefining what reading looks like at their library. “Whether it’s on a page or a screen, or audio, reading isn’t just books—it’s also about conversations about books!” This is why Jeffries and her fellow librarians and library workers are passionate about sharing all of these formats to give their readers a choice. They also offer storytimes and read-alouds with chapter books and picture books, and model best practices for parents and caregivers to help their young scholars fall in love with stories and the library, too.
“If you’re a reluctant reader, sometimes you might feel like no one knows you, or that you don’t need to go to the library,” Jeffries said. “But, we say, ‘Just walk in a library, we can help you. We will meet you where you are, and guide you to the books, audio, graphic novels, and programs that we’re reading. We are that place. Trust us!’ ”
