The Kid Who "Doesn't Like Reading" Is Waiting for the Right Book

Good Tidings Blog · For Teachers · Classroom Reading · 5 min read

You know the one. He's in the back row, arms crossed, doing everything he can to avoid picking up a book during silent reading time. Or she's the quiet one who quietly "forgets" her book at home, week after week. Every teacher has a few — the kids who've already decided, sometimes as early as first grade, that reading just isn't for them.

Here's the thing: it's rarely true. What's usually true is that they haven't found their book yet.

Every Classroom Is a Room Full of Different Readers

Twenty-five kids, twenty-five different relationships with reading. Some kids devour chapter books. Some need pictures to stay anchored. Some love silliness and rhyme. Some are working twice as hard just to decode the words on the page, and by the time they get to the end of a sentence, they've lost the thread of what it even meant.

Finding one book that reaches all of them feels impossible — because in a lot of ways, it is. But what if the goal wasn't one book that does everything, but a book built with enough variety, warmth, and flexibility that almost every kid can find their way in?

That's exactly what we set out to do with Good Tidings.

Why Poetry-Stories Work Where Other Books Don't

Good Tidings is a collection of poetry-stories — short, playful, rhythmic pieces that read like stories but feel like songs. And that format does something quietly powerful in a classroom:

• Short pieces lower the stakes. A reluctant reader who feels defeated by a 20-page chapter can finish a poem-story in a few minutes — and finish it successfully. That's a completely different feeling to walk away with.
• Rhythm and rhyme support developing readers. The musicality of poetry helps kids predict language patterns, which builds fluency and confidence without them even realizing they're "practicing."
• Variety means more entry points. Because each piece stands alone, kids can bounce around, find the poems that speak to them, and build their own relationship with the book instead of being marched through it start to finish.
• They're made to be read aloud. Whether it's you reading to the class or a student reading to a friend, these poems are built for voices — which makes reading feel like connection, not a solitary chore.

None of this is by accident. Every poem in Good Tidings was written with the goal of meeting kids exactly where they are — whatever kind of reader they currently believe themselves to be.

It's Not Just a Book. It's a Moment.

Here's what we believe, deep down, about what you do every day: you're not just filling a reading block. You're not just checking off a curriculum requirement. Every time you hand a kid the right book at the right moment, you're doing something much bigger — you're creating the moment a kid falls in love with books.

That moment doesn't always look dramatic. Sometimes it's just a kid asking to read "just one more," or a student who normally shrugs through storytime suddenly leaning forward. But that small shift is everything. It's the beginning of a reader.

Good Tidings was written to help create more of those moments — for the kid who loves reading already, and especially for the one who doesn't think he does yet.

A Small Way to Bring More of These Moments Into Your Classroom

If you're looking for something that fits into your read-aloud time, a quiet corner of your classroom library, or a five-minute pocket between transitions, Good Tidings was made with exactly that kind of moment in mind.

We'd love for it to find its way onto your shelf — and into the hands of the kid who's still waiting for his book. You can find Good Tidings on Amazon, follow along on Instagram @kikipdbooks, or take a peek at the world behind it right here on our site.