Exposure to Literature

Over the past 3 years while working in an elementary school library, I have observed that the fastest way to get students to pick up a book and read it is to have booktalks.  What is a booktalk? A booktalk is basically sharing a book with students.  I like to do this in a variety of ways, depending on the book.  I sometimes share booktrailers which are like movie trailers, showing exciting parts of books to entice students to read them. Scholastic has very good booktrailers ready for use as well as author interviews.  Some authors have wonderful websites that I will share with students.  These will contain summaries of books, videos and sometimes games and printables. With a chapter book in a series, I will share the first couple of chapters of the first book in the series. This will hook several students into reading the first book. I have noticed that even if only a few students read the book presented, several more will request the book in the weeks that follow. Then they will come back for more books in the series. Ta-da!