Some of us with older children are either blessed with book worms, or struggle to get our teens to read. So here are some ideas to help inspire your teen to find a love of books and learning.
ADLIT.ORG, ADOLESCENT LITERACY
Adlit.org focuses on teens and issues with literacy. The site offers recommendations for authors, books and ways to get your teen to read. In this high tech, fast paced world it seems harder and harder to get a teenager to focus on quiet time and reading that doesn’t include their cell phone, hand held or TV game player, MP3 player or time spent “hanging out”. Getting kids to read means helping them become interested in different authors and subjects. This website gives tips on how to get your teen interested in reading. It offers lists of popular books for teens, sorted by category here: http://www.adlit.org/books_by_theme and strategies for motivation http://www.adlit.org/article/c128/ as well as suggestions for college readiness http://www.adlit.org/ready_for_college among many other interesting topics.
They also have an online store that provides books to help differently able learners, parents and educators with reading challenges.
TEENREADS.COM
Teenreads.com is another good website centered around teen readers. They offer contests and tons of book categories that may spark any teens interest. The site also has a blog and updated Ultimate Reading List.
AMAZON.COM TEEN READING
This link has a list of teen related books, some that look really interesting all marketed to catching a teen’s attention.
AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
ALA.com is the American Library Association and on their website they have a special section on teens and teen literacy. Also provided on their website is a membership to YALSA, (Young Adult Library Services Association) which help promote reading enthusiasm by offering discounts on books, contests, webinars, classes and more for a nominal annual fee. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/joinus/joinus.cfm
THE BOOK DEPOSITORY
The Book Depository.com is a website that sells hundreds of books at discounted rates. If you do a search on their site for “teens” it brings up a lot of great books written for and about teens.
BOOKS-A-MILLION
Books-a-million.com has books and e-books at greatly discounted rates, they also specialize in popular children and teen books. This is a fun website to browse and they support ebooks and and sell ebook readers. Sometimes when trying to combat technology, it is better to match it with technology. If you can convince your child to read a book on his or her e-reader, it is easier for them to read, listen to music and watch movies. As long as they are reading, then having other interests, all supported on one device can actually be a benefit and a motivation for teen readers to be enthusiastic about their books.
However, getting your teen to read, is important and fostering a sense of joy and curiosity about discovering new books is vital to their success as an adult. Be it fiction, non-fiction or periodicals, whatever gets your teen reading and expanding their minds, will help them be better educated, more well rounded adults. Also diving into a good book, can keep teens from trying other things out of boredom.
Also try…
Teenlit.com a site that not only promotes teen readers, but also teen writers with contests and interactive programs.
Reading Rants (out of the ordinary teen book lists) This is a cool website that is not only hip and cool (teens love hip and cool) but also interactive, with teens reviewing the books and well researched as there are many exciting teen-centric things to choose from. I think I may go over there and pick out a few books for myself…shhhh.
