Here’s what some students told us: 

“I like browseable books because you have a lot of
choices about        how you read. It’s like the potluck dinners at my church.”
—Matthew, fourth grader

“I like narrative nonfiction because
it has characters and a story that is a real situation! It is like I Survived
and other fiction books.” —Miles, second grader

“I like expository literature because it has facts plus
it can make you think about something in a new way.” —Rowan, fourth grader

I like active nonfiction because it teaches you to do the
things you want to do.” —Gina, fourth grader

But as the following quotation shows,
there’s another factor that’s also important:   

“I like
any book from any category as long as it’s about sharks. That’s my favorite
topic.”  —Asher, fourth grader

Asher isn’t alone. The best way—sometimes the only way—to turn a child into a passionate
nonfiction reader is to hand them a book on the exact topic they find most
fascinating.

For example, a child who’s captivated by monster trucks
may toss aside a finely-crafted book about the history of automobiles. But they
will struggle for hours to comprehend complex monster-truck stats downloaded
from the internet.

Just imagine how much this child would appreciate a
clear, straightforward, age-appropriate book about monster trucks. They’d
gobble it up and ask for more.

That’s why it’s so important to identify the topics that
interest your students most. Now. At the beginning of the school year

To help you do that, Marlene and I have created a nifty Book Match Survey for your students. Next week I’ll share some ways you can use the
results to turn struggling readers into passionate nonfiction readers.