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Happy summer and happy reading, Coyotes! I created a fun challenge for you for this summer. See if you can read books across various genres this summer, along with reading in various (and fun) ways and places. You can track your reading with this bingo card. Just click the little "pop-out" arrow in the upper right corner below to download it. See below with more information on the genres and the challenge.
What's a genre?
What's a genre?
A genre is a category or type of book. This is different than book format (is the book a picture book, chapter book, middle grade (upper fiction) book, graphic novel?). Every format of books also has genres within its format.
Here are the genres for this challenge:
Fantasy/Sci-Fi-- these books contains something magical/unreal, or something scientific or futuristic (like a setting in space or a dystopian book where the author imagines a future where the world has changed). Examples: Harry Potter, Land of Stories, Moon Base Alpha, Aru Shah, Keeper of the Lost Cities, Wings of Fire, Magic Tree House.
Biography/Nonfiction-- I combined these two genres for our bingo card. Biographies are books about a real person, and this includes autobiography and memoir which are biographies written by the person they are about. Nonfiction is simply not a made-up story-- animals, dinosaurs, history, sports. Who/What Was books are great for this category! There are some graphic novels that are actually memoirs like Smile, When Stars Are Scattered, and El Deafo.
Realistic Fiction-- these are books with a story that could be true/set in the real world, and are usually set in our generally current time period. You can decide whether you think a book is "realistic" or not. 😉 Some popular ideas: Front Desk, The Penderwicks, Because of Winn-Dixie, The Vanderbeekers, Holes, Babysitters Club.
Humor-- any book that makes you laugh! Examples: Frindle, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Big Nate, Timmy Failure, 13-Story Treehouse, Mercy Watson.
Mystery-- any book where characters have a puzzle or something unknown to figure out. This could include spy books like City Spies and Spy School. More examples: A to Z Mysteries, Greenglass House, Book Scavenger, Masterpiece, Ali Cross.
Historical Fiction-- a book that takes place in the past. Sorry parents, I hate to say it, but books set in the 1980s or 1990s now qualify as "historical fiction" for our kids. 😂 A few examples: FunJungle, Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales, Island of the Blue Dolphins, By the Great Horned Spoon, The Black Stallion.
Graphic Novels can be from any genre (have fun!) and include comic books and longer graphic novels or graphic adaptations. Free Choice of Genre just means you pick any genre, even those not on our challenge like poetry/novel in verse or classics.
Many books fit in more than one genre-- if that's the case, you get to decide where to put it!
For parents, a little more about this challenge: This mini challenge was inspired by one of my favorite books about reading and literacy, called The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller. I highly recommend this book if you would like to learn more about the benefits of choice and reading widely across genres for children's literacy and love of reading. Reading across genres helps kids find what they like and actually stick with reading books that aren't just assigned. Ms. Miller cites research which states that students who simply read more outperform students who don't read as much.
Ms. Miller's book describes a philosophy and reading challenge called The 40 Book Challenge. My own kids have participated in this challenge during their upper elementary school years, and have grown immensely as readers through it.
Here are a few notes from Ms. Miller that I think also apply to our mini summer challenge (source):
"The 40 Book Challenge is a personal challenge for each student, not a contest or competition between students or classes. In every competition or contest there are winners and losers. Why would we communicate to our students that they are reading losers?"
"Honestly, I don’t care if all of my students read 40 books or not. What matters is that students stretch themselves as readers and increase their competence, confidence, and reading motivation through their daily participation in our reading community."
"Students who haven’t read much may not have found the books that speak to them. Reading buffet-style—tasting all types of books—students can discover what the world of reading has to offer."
"Developing students’ positive reading identities and development as lifelong readers—these must remain our priorities every day, all year long." YES!
Are there prizes?
While I don't have prizes planned for this challenge per se (because it's not a competition or contest), I will hand out some fun bookmarks at the start of the year to kids who show me that they participated in the challenge by reading over the summer. I would love to see the bingo cards after summer and I will celebrate with your kids any squares that they mark off, whether they complete it or not! I'll also compile some stats to display in our library with bingo cards that are turned into me at the start of the year. 6th graders moving on-- come back and visit me with your bingo card! 😀 Parents, you can participate with your own bingo card, too!
Here are some links to a few 2023 Summer Reading programs (as compiled by Miss Lili, another library media specialist in our district):
San Diego Public Library Summer Reading (SDPL) - Earnings & rewards can be repeated
Barnes & Noble, reading journal (B&N) - Earnings & rewards can be repeated
HPB Summer Reading Camp Summer Reading Camp returns Thursday, June 1, and runs through Monday, July 31.
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