Last year I went into our local library in February and was greeted with a sign by a pile of wrapped books which said: “Fall in Love with a Good Book!”. In the youth section, there were books wrapped with a one word clue as to what it contained: mystery, friendship, space, animals, etc. It was clever, and it definitely inspired my kids to try something new. Me too, actually, because there was a pile for adults too, and I picked one that was “historical fiction” to bring home and read.
At the same time, in the back of my mind was a question I had wondered a while back: why, with all our full bookshelves, do my kids think there is nothing to read at home?, and, how could I inspire them to try some of our good books (that I know they would like!)?
You know exactly where I’m going with this, I’m sure. The library program inspired me that day and a “someday” plan started to form in my mind. Here’s what it turned into:
our summer reading gifts!
I’m sharing here in case it might be helpful to you too.
Here’s what I did:
- I scoured our bookshelf for books I thought my kids would like
- I went to the local thrift shop and picked some books there that I knew we would enjoy (and would want to keep)
- I purchased a few books from our wish list
Then I bought wrapping paper from the local dollar store, wrapped up all the books and placed them in a big stack in the family room. (That first year I color coded them as younger and older interest level for my less than 13 year olds and my more than 13 year olds.)
To kick it off, I handed each child one specially picked gift on which I had written their name. (I wanted them to start out with a win, knowing they would most likely enjoy the one I picked for them, and also – just an individualized personal way to show them I was thinking of each of them individually during the picking.)
It was so much fun! We had a cute pdf with a stack of books so they could write the name of their book when they finished on it – in their own color, so we could see who read what. (If you’d like that, sign up in the box above and I’ll send it to you.)
THEN, after they finished the book, and if they so desired, they got to wrap up their gift (in a 3rd kind of wrapping paper to keep it obvious) on which they could write the name of who they thought would enjoy this book next. It was then placed in the pile of books for whenever it might get picked.
And the results? Over 50 books were read by my 6 children in the month we had this going. My daughter, who was 10 at the time, grew her confidence as a reader. My 12 year old discovered that he likes more genres than he thought. My 9 year old decided to pick one of the books wrapped in the scholarly youth wrapping paper just because he wanted to. And my teenagers, who already loved reading, enjoyed the surprise of the draw and reading what I picked for them.
To be clear, there were no rules as to which book they could pick. If my 18 year old wanted to pick a book wrapped in the younger exploratory wrapping paper, she was welcome to do so. If someone had written a recommended name on the book they read, there was no obligation to pick it. There were no quotas, no expectations, just a beautiful invitation to try a new book.
I did, however, add an incentive that may or may not have helped the inspiration. Since I was wanting to build up our Nature Journal supplies anyway, I added some drawing pencils and tools to a box and let them pick out one after every 2 books read. I wonder how the book gifts would have done without that extra incentive?
In any case, I feel it was a huge success. And my kids loved it too – so much so that they asked for it again this year.
Thank you, library, for the inspiration!