Engaging the Reluctant Reader by Karen Pokras Toz #ChaBooCha

Engaging the Reluctant Reader
by Karen Pokras Toz

You love to read  - you always have. If you’re not busy with your family or other commitments, you’ve got a book in hand. Sometimes you read two or three different books at one time. You always assumed your children would grow into voracious readers also? Right. Wrong. Your kids barely want to read their assigned schoolwork, never mind anything extra. Does this sound like you? Well, this is me – and it’s one of the reasons I started writing chapter books for the middle grade reader.

So how do you convince that reluctant reader that reading is awesome? I went right to the source to find the answer – my own children. The response was unanimous: there is nothing fun to read. So I decided to prove them wrong. Before I knew it, Nate Rocks was born.

I keep several things I keep in mind when writing for the reluctant reader:

(1) Content – it needs to be easy to follow and on topic. If I lose the reader because they don’t know what’s going on or are bored with the subject, they are going to get easily frustrated, and move on to a different activity quickly.

(2) Tone – some authors like to jam pack their books with action. I think this is great. Kids love it. For me, however, I’m all about humor. My goal is to get your kids laughing. Have you ever seen a giggling kid leave the scene of something funny? Nope – it doesn’t happen.

(3) Parents/Educators – I want my books to be the books that parents and educators go to when trying to motivate their reluctant readers. Therefore, I try to make my books appeal to kids and adults. I (hopefully) accomplish this by keeping my books language appropriate. In addition, I always try to teach a lesson ... without the kids realizing I am teaching a lesson. For example – within my books you will find messages about anti-bullying, friendship, and respect.

In the end, if your child reads my stories, giggles, and asks for another book (whether one of mine or someone else’s), I have done my job.  Encourage the children in your life to read each and every day!

Karen Pokras Toz lives outside of Philadelphia with her husband and three children. Karen's middle grade children's novels: Millicent Marie Is Not My Name and the Nate Rocks series, have won several awards including First Place for Children's Chapter Books and the Grand Prize Overall in the 2012 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, as well as placing first for a Global E-Book Award for Pre-Teen Literature. Karen is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI). Her first adult contemporary novel, invisible, will be released this summer. For more information, please visit www.karentoz.com.

And now for the prize announcement! I bought a copy of "Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly!" by Gail Carson Levine to giveaway with this post. First, in order to enter, you have to already be officially signed up for the challenge. Then the only thing you have left to do in order to gain an entry for the prize is to comment on this blog post. You have until noon GMT on the 24th to enter as that is when I will be using a random number generator to pick the two winners.

Now, I understand that, as so many ChaBooCha members already buy writing books, some of you might already have the books offered as prizes during this challenge. Because of this, if you are drawn by the random number selector as a winner for this prize, and you already have the book, you can do one of two things; you can choose to give the book as a gift to someone else in the challenge, either anonymously or with your name attached and it will be sent directly to them instead of you OR you can choose ONE of the following four things from the Chapter Book Challenge 2013 shop.

Chapter Book Challenge 2013 Tile Keepsake Coaster

Chapter Book Challenge 2013 Square Coaster


Chapter Book Challenge 2013 Keepsake Ornament

Chapter Book Challenge 2013 Shot Glass