By Kitty Felde
Kids are reading less. A lot less. Just one in three children read every day for pleasure. According to the National Literacy Trust, daily reading by kids between ages eight and 18 has dropped 26 percent over the past two decades.
Librarian Rebecca Opalka says she’s been dealing with reluctant readers forever. Some kids, she says, “Just aren’t having it” when it comes to books. Especially kids in upper elementary and middle grade.
Before working at the Phoenix Public Library, Rebecca spent 17 years as a classroom teacher where she had her own small classroom library. She says there was one book she couldn’t keep on the shelves. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz. This 1981 title is perfect for upper elementary/middle grade kids, with a creepy cover and a collection of spooky tales.
Kids loved it so much, they kept stealing it.
“I replaced that book four to five times a year,” says Rebecca. “Kids would just take it. They loved the scary stories.”
Elsewhere in the world, the most stolen book at the Cape Town library in South Africa is Jeff Kenney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid. In England, the Tintin and Asterix comics and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series keep disappearing off the shelves. The most stolen book of all times? Reportedly it’s the Guinness Book of World Records.
Got a reluctant reader? Pick one of these titles, books so beloved the young reader can’t let them go. Any one of them would make the perfect holiday gift.
Just don’t steal the books. You can borrow them for free at the DC Public Library. Several copies are available right now. Just bring them back, please.
Kitty Felde is host of the Book Club for Kids podcast, winner of the DC Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Humanities.