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How to Find a Book You’ll Like to Read


Reading can be lots of fun, but sometimes it’s hard to figure out


what’s a good book for you. How do you zero in on a book you’ll enjoy and not waste time reading something else? Paws has some answers that you’re going to want to hear. He’s put them together in The Paws Reading Plan below. These tips can help you pick books you’ll like and give you ways to keep reading all summer.


The Paws Reading Plan: 10 Ways to Pick a Great Book 1. Think about things that interest you and look for books about those things.


2. Ask a friend for a recommendation. 3. Find out what’s new. Ask a friendly librarian or find reviews of new children’s books in newspapers or online.


4. Use the Internet. It’s easy to search for books of a specific title or read about them at bookstore sites such as Amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com.


5. Go for an award-winner. Look up past winners in the yearly Newbery and Caldecott awards competitions, or look at lists for the Coretta Scott King program for African American children’s books or the Pura Belpré Awards for Hispanic children’s books.


6. Ask Oprah. Oprah Winfrey’s popular Book Club has two lists of recommendations for kids on her Web site www.oprah.com. One is for kids 6-9 years old and one is for kids 10-12. 7. See what’s at home for reading materials. What do your


USE THE NEWS


Getting better at reading is like getting better at anything else. The more you practice, the better you get. You may read words you haven’t learned in the types of books you choose. Don’t worry though. Everybody, including players with the Detroit Tigers, learns new words all the time. Try this activity — turn to the front page of today’s newspaper. Skim the stories and captions and make a list of five words you don’t know. Next to each word, write what you think it means from the way it is used in the sentence. Check to see if you are right by looking the word up in a dictionary.


Paws just loves to share reading tips when students come to visit.


parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters and other relatives like to read? What did they like to read when they were your age?


8. Pick a best-seller. Visit a community bookstore and ask what books other kids your age are reading.


9. Browse the shelves. See what you can find at a library or book- store by just pulling books that look interesting off the shelves. Sometimes the best finds are things you find by luck!


10. Read this section!! Picking ‘Just Right’ Books


How do you know whether a book will be too easy, too hard or just right for your reading skills?


Reading experts have come up with this checklist for picking out books that will be right for you. 1. Look at the cover. Do the images look interesting? 2. Read the title and the author. 3. Read “blurb” descriptions on the back page or inside covers. 4. Flip through the book. 5. Read the first page. The first few sentences can actually tell you a lot about whether you will like the book because beginning sentences are often those that authors work the hardest on.


6. The first page also will help you decide if the book is the right reading level for you, if you use “The Five-Finger Rule.” With this rule, you count the words that challenge you on your fingers.


If the first page has just 0-1 words that challenge you, it is probably too easy. If there are 4-5 words that challenge you, it probably is too hard. If there are 2-3 words that challenge you, the book is probably just right.


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