3 Reasons I Won’t Recommend a Book to My Middle Schoolers
The absolute BEST part of my job is connecting with students through reading. For me, there’s nothing like it--but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Just like we all gradually earn students’ trust during the year through community-building activities and one-on-one interactions, I also work very hard to earn my students’ trust as readers.
As you know, though, trust is tricky because it can be broken easily. Reading trust is particularly fragile when it comes to reluctant readers. One bad suggestion can undermine months of hard book match-making work. Because I have always taught primarily reluctant readers, I have had to become incredibly intentional (and picky) when it comes to choosing books for my classroom library and recommending titles to my students.
Whenever I pick up a new middle grade or YA book, there are several red flags I look out for as I read, and today, I’m sharing them here!
1. AN OVERLY-COMPLICATED OR MYSTERIOUS PLOT
As I’m reading a new book and evaluating it for my middle schoolers, I immediately take pause when I encounter a point in the text that I feel I need to reread. Sometimes my mind has just wandered, and that’s why I need to reread, but other times it’s because the plot of the novel is complicated. This is always concerning to me because if, I, a strong adult reader, am having problems comprehending a text, it is unlikely that a reluctant reader will want to persevere through that confusion. Unexpectedly, I find that some graphic novels are very difficult to comprehend. While I really enjoyed the graphic novel Sheets, by Brenna Thummler, I knew as I was reading it that my students would struggle with its double plot line. I caution teachers about recommending graphic novels blindly because they often require the reader to do more inferential thinking than a traditional text!
In other novels, the plot of the story is intentionally mysterious. There may be several intertwined plot lines that don’t fully make sense until the reader is most of the way through the novel, or there may just be one big mystery that is unsolved until the very end of the story. While this kind of writing can sometimes be compelling, it can also make reluctant or insecure readers feel confused and uninterested. This is tricky for teachers purchasing books for their libraries because many of these kinds of novels are beautiful works of literature and award-winners but end up gathering dust on shelves. One that comes to mind is The Girl Who Drank The Moon by Kelly Barnhill. Though the book is a fabulous fantasy read, I recommend it primarily to my strong readers because the perspectives in the book shift often and there is a lot left unknown until the very end of the story.
2. A “PLOT SLOPE” INSTEAD OF A PLOT PYRAMID
I encounter many middle grade and young adult books that are beautifully written or very sweet stories. As a reader, I enjoy these kinds of books, but I know they usually aren’t right for my students. Reluctant readers need a first chapter that is compelling and a steep plot pyramid filled with dramatic twists and turns. This kind of intensity keeps reluctant readers engaged despite the fact that every cell in their being strains against even the idea of reading. Unfortunately, this often rules out some lovely coming-of-age books that have, what I fondly call, a “plot slope.” Novels such as Blended by Sharon Draper or Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly certainly tackle very important topics and are truly beautiful texts, but I reserve them for students who always enjoy reading, not for students with whom I need to build strong reading trust.
3. CERTAIN MATURE CONTENT
And of course, as a public school teacher especially, I am very conscious of the mature content I expose students to in my classroom library. While I feel no obligation to censor books that students select on their own from the school or public library, I am careful about the novels I line my classroom shelves with. Young adult literature is a tricky genre for middle school teachers because some titles are certainly appropriate for middle school students, while others are definitely better suited for high schoolers. Then, of course, there is the added complexity of the tremendous range in maturity of middle school students themselves. The intellectual and social leaps that they make from one grade to the next are unpredictable and variable. For that reason, I feel the need to read almost every book that I recommend to students, and I tend to rule out texts that contain sexual content or explicit drug use. However, I know how overwhelming the task of reading every novel on your shelves can be, and that is exactly why I began creating my Book Talk One Pager Guides. They not only outline plot points, describe major characters, provide suggested read-aloud pages, and give helpful background information on each text, but they also specify (often with page numbers) the mature content (or lack thereof) in each novel so you can recommend and purchase books with confidence.
In my years working with reluctant readers, I have developed a “sixth sense” when it comes to identifying texts that they will love. Through a lot of trial and error, I can now see stories through their eyes, and I’m so much more confident in the books I recommend to them.
Building reading trust with your students happens one book recommendation at a time. Hopefully this post and my available Book Talk One Pagers will help you develop that sixth sense, too!
♥ Kara & Riley
