How to Help a Kid Find a Book They Actually Want to Read

A Good Tidings Guide · For Parents & Teachers · 4 min read

A practical guide for parents and teachers (that has nothing to do with reading level)

If you've ever handed a child the "perfect" book — age-appropriate, well-reviewed, sitting right at their reading level — and watched them wander off to do literally anything else, you already know the truth: reading level tells you almost nothing about whether a kid will want to open a book.

Here's the good news. Researchers gave two groups of children identical stories in different covers, telling one group they'd chosen theirs — and the children who believed they'd picked their book scored meaningfully higher on comprehension, even though the story inside was exactly the same. The choosing mattered more than the content.

So if level isn't the lever to pull, what is? Four things: interest, humor, format, and personality. Here's how to actually use each one.

1. Interest is the doorway, not the reward

We tend to treat interest in reading like something a child earns after they've become a "good enough" reader. A recent pooled analysis of 39 reading-motivation programs found that the interventions built around triggering a child's genuine interest produced the biggest gains in both motivation and comprehension — and the effect was strongest in elementary-aged kids specifically.

In other words: interest isn't the dessert. It's the entry point.

Try this

Skip the "what's your reading level" question entirely. Instead, ask what they'd choose if they could watch anything, build anything, or know anything — dinosaurs, prank wars, space, gross facts, soccer, dragons — then go find books in that lane, regardless of whether the reading level lines up perfectly.

2. Struggling readers need interest even more than confident ones do

This matters even more for reluctant or below-level readers. A UWE Bristol study found the strongest factor in getting a struggling reader to pick up a book for fun was an interest-driven choice — football, Lego, a favorite show — with comfortable formats like graphic novels close behind.

Try this

If a child is behind or resistant, resist handing them something "easier." Hand them something they're dying to know more about instead. The topic's pull does the heavy lifting.

3. Humor and format aren't fluff — they're function

Kids gravitate toward books that let them laugh, predict, and participate. Rhyme, silliness, and a bit of chaos aren't just entertaining — they lower the friction of reading itself, especially for a child who associates books with effort rather than fun. Short, punchy formats (poems, illustrated stories, episodic chapters) give a reluctant reader small wins they can rack up quickly, which matters more for building a reading identity than one long, "impressive" book ever will.

Try this

Let a child read something goofy without guilt. A giggle on page one buys you a much better shot at page two.

4. Personality: match the book to the kid, not the shelf

The quiet, cautious kid and the loud, chaotic-good kid are not going to bond with the same character. A child who feels most like themselves in a story — the worrier, the daydreamer, the always-late one, the kid who can't sit still — is a child who keeps reading, because the book feels like it gets them.

Try this

Instead of "what genre do you like," try "who in this book reminds you of you?" That question tends to get a much more honest answer — and a much stickier book choice.

Putting It Together

• Interest — What do they already love talking about?
• Format — Would rhyme, illustration, or short bursts help them in the door?
• Humor — Is there room to laugh on page one?
• Personality — Does a character in here feel like them?

Reading level still matters for instruction — but for building a lifelong reader, research consistently shows kids read more often and more deeply when they choose their own books, and comprehension improves regardless of level when the choice is theirs.

That's the whole idea behind Good Tidings — short, funny, character-driven poems and stories written for kids who see a little of themselves in every page.

Where reading feels like fun.

— Kikipd