This chapter was originally going to be titled “Supporting Parents When a Child Is a Struggling Reader,” but that changed after hearing the author and national ambassador for Young People’s Literature Jacqueline Woodson’s reasons against using the “struggling reader” label. She talks about kids like her who are “reading slowly and deliberately and deconstructing language” and how this slowness is considered a problem by adults (Iasevoli 2018). Woodson makes the case that the ability to read changes over time and trying to put kids into neat little boxes can have a detrimental effect on a kid’s sense of self.
This struck a chord with me because I’ve always considered myself a child who struggled to learn to read. I personally had two challenges to overcome. I have weak eye muscles, and it made it hard to focus on the page without getting lost among the words. Lucky for me, my mother noticed the problem and she took me to the eye doctor. Getting glasses made a big difference.
My second challenge was a bigger hurdle to get over. I was not, and to this day am not, phonetic. My mother, who taught preschool at the time, had the educational background to help me. She had learned that kids are ready to start learning to read at different times. She also knew that seeing and hearing words would build my vocabulary to the point that reading would click even if sounding out words never came easy. In her career as a preschool, kindergarten, and third-grade teacher, she witnessed this over and over again in her students. For me, it did click—sometime during the second grade. After that, I became a voracious reader, but the path to being a successful reader is different for every child.
If learning to read was not a challenge for you, it might be difficult to relate to someone who tussles with the written word. While this can be true for some librarians, it can be even more of an issue for caregivers. Frustration levels can run high, but the right tone at the library can make a huge difference. As someone who took a zigzagging path to reading, I consider these kids near and dear to my heart.
When a child is not learning to read at the same speed as a friend, sibling, or classmate, it can be hard on both the parent and the child. Many times, there is absolutely nothing amiss, and other times there may be an underlying cause or disability. A couple of areas that kids can fall into include:
Librarians are not meant to diagnose the problem. Instead, librarians can offer encouragement and suggest things like checking with a child’s teacher, pediatrician, or eye doctor for feedback. It is important to let the professionals work with families to identify any reasons why reading might be more challenging for an individual child. If needed, a plan can be put in place by these experts to help the child feel more positive about the reading process. Hopefully, one part of the plan will be visits to the local library for books and other resources. When that happens, you will need to be prepared to work with families who are under more stress than the average family.
Both the parent and the child in a developing reader situation can be feeling embarrassed when they arrive at the reference desk. A key thing to remember is that this a sensitive conversation. Caregivers can be on the defense even when you are only trying to get the basic facts about why they have come to visit, let alone when you might offer some advice. On a first visit, just stick with something as simple as “what do you like to do for fun.” Then find a book on the topic that excites the child and that he or she can practice reading with. If you can, throw in one that is on the same topic but that a caregiver would need to read aloud or that comes as an audiobook (just make sure to include the print book too).
No matter the age of the child, reading aloud is super important. Woodson talks about this important activity in relation to teachers reading aloud to their students but it is just as crucial for the parent-and-child relationship. These are some phrases I like to use with caregivers as we develop a relationship and the situation presents itself.
When a new family enters the library, it may be the only time you see them. They may be visiting from out of town or simply visiting from a neighboring community. It might be a Tuesday morning when you always work, but in the future, the family will only be able to come on Thursday evenings when you are not on the schedule. No matter what, you want to provide the best customer-centered experience you can so that the library as an institution becomes a place the family wants to return to.
Taking the time to listen and perhaps go the extra mile to get a child the book they really want can go a long way with parents. Bringing your own enthusiasm about books into the conversation can be contagious, and it models for caregivers how they can in turn talk about books with their kids at home. Your interactions may last only a few minutes or could go on for a half hour. Busy librarians may have to step away to help another family, but you always want to check back and make sure no one goes home discouraged.
Recently when working the reference desk, I had a mother with three girls approach me. All of her girls were reading below grade level and the mother wanted help finding books for them. I suggested we all go over and look for books together in the easy-reader section. We took a peek inside a few books so I could gauge how many words/sentences on the page the kids were comfortable with. I wanted to error on the side of perhaps a little too easy in order to help build a little confidence. From there, I started doing readers advisory interviews with the girls one at a time in order to see what they were most interested in—princesses, animals, cars, and so on—and then matched each girl up with three books to take home.
Once the girls had their books, the mother asked for help choosing a book to read aloud as a family. At first, I suggested a chapter book but the mother resisted. Perhaps she was not a strong reader herself or the girls simply had short attention spans. I did not push it with the mother but instead took them over to the new picture book display. We found a couple of possibilities before the mother remembered the stripes book that the girls really liked. It took a little back-and-forth conversation to realize she meant David Shannon’s A Bad Case of Stripes. I did not have a copy available that day, but it ended up being a win-win situation as a hold was placed and they checked out a few new titles to help tide them over.
The most rewarding part of the exchange came when the family went to check out the books. The oldest girl was super-protective of her picks. She made sure her books did not get mixed in with her sisters’. Both the mother and the girls left feeling jazzed about their reading choices rather than feeling bad about any reading challenges they had. That, of course, is always the goal when working with kids and their parents, but even more so when a child is feeling overwhelmed by the challenge of learning to read.
One afternoon I received a phone call from a children’s assistant at one of the branch libraries I select books for. She was an experienced recommender of books, but she was in a quandary with her latest mother and daughter customers. The daughter was dyslexic and reading was hard for her. The layout of a beginning reader was best for her, but as a middle grader, she wanted to be reading what her friends were reading.
After doing some research, the staff member had found a series CreateSpace had just started publishing called DyslexiAssist. CreateSpace self-publishes books and the quality of the books published can vary greatly. It is not a publisher I tend to gravitate toward when I’m purchasing materials for Cuyahoga County Public Library, except in specific circumstances. This proved to be one of those exceptions.
There were only a few books in the series at the time but I ordered several copies of each. All branch staff were alerted to the purchase in case they had similar customers who could benefit. These books look similar to what a middle grade reader would be reading but have more white space on the page and more space between the lines so they are easier for a dyslexic reader. The mother and the daughter were both delighted when the books arrived in the branch a couple of weeks later. DyslexiAssist met an immediate need, but I began looking for other options and found some in large print and e-books.
The alternate formats that a library carries can make a great impact on the reading skills and habits of a child that will stay with them clear into adulthood. When caregivers share information about their child’s reading troubles or the challenges he or she faces, it is an opportunity for librarians to step in and suggest a format that might be more conducive to an individual child’s learning style.
Developing readers are not stupid but they may feel that way because of the specific challenges they have to overcome in order to make reading enjoyable instead of a chore to get through. Having a children’s large print collection can serve several purposes to help improve the reading experience for the parent and child.
At my library, we had purchased large print regularly in the 1990s and early 2000s. They were mostly classic titles, but the collection had not been updated much until 2017. We had picked up adult crossover titles like Fault in Our Stars by John Green, and these copies did circulate well for us. This mix of older classic titles and the few new titles seemed to meet the demand.
Then I attended a Baker and Taylor and Thorndike Press webinar “Engaging Reluctant Readers in Your Library” and began to realize our developing readers could have the opportunity to read the same books as their peers, if they were in a larger font, had more space between lines, and had more white space on the page (Grice, Joyce, and McAlpine 2018). After all, this is what the best beginning reader books offer children. I decided to test this out by adding new core titles to the collection.
The scope and nature of the titles I choose for the initial order, as seen in Appendix B, provided a nice collection for testing the waters and assessing the needs of the community. I selected titles by authors like Jeff Kinney, J. K. Rowling, and Rick Riordan. These authors write popular middle grade reads and would allow a developing reader the opportunity to grab books like the ones their friends are reading. It was a big first order, and after that, a handful of titles have been added each year.
I purchased four copies of each title and targeted four branches where the children tend to need support when it comes to reading. These books were labeled with our LP sticker and were given a large print location code in our ILS system, Innovative Interfaces Inc.’s Sierra. This helps for both online and library browsing. The other decision made was to shelve the large print books side by side with their typical hardback counterpart. My goal was to make these accessible to readers when they were browsing and to cut down on the otherness of the books.
The large print titles are circulating throughout all 28 branches thanks to floating. When reports were run in August 2018, 63 percent of the collection that was added in October 2017 was checked out. The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series had the highest turnover with titles circulating at anywhere from 9 to 15 time per copy. Additional circulation statistics can be found in Table 4.1.
Shortly after adding these large print titles to the collection, a teacher came in looking for large print titles for a visually impaired student at her school. She was thrilled to find that Wonder by R. J. Palacio was in large print. Her class was reading it, and now all the students would be able to
Table 4.1 Kid’s Large Print Statistics
| Kids Large Print Statistics | |
| Cuyahoga County Public Library | |
| October 2017-August 2018 | |
| 42 Number of titles purchased | |
| 167 Number of copies purchased | |
| 16 Number of copies missing, billed, or damaged | 10% |
| 151 Number of copies still in circulation | 90% |
| 106 Number of copies checked out | 63% |
| 45 Number of copies check shelf | 27% |
| 6 Average number of circulations per copy October 2017-August 2018 | |
read it together. We showed her how to search the catalog for other large print titles for her student to enjoy. Staff are also making an effort to highlight the large print titles, with readers needing a little more help.
Your electronic collections are a treasure trove of materials with customization features a print book does not have. Adult librarians have seen their seniors using the e-reader font-enhancing feature for years so they can mimic large print books. I am still a print-book reader at heart, but the ability to enlarge text is a perfect feature to use with kids who need a little additional help to be effective readers.
No matter your personal opinion about e-books, you should take the time to learn the features of your e-book vendor’s app for font type and size. Cuyahoga County uses Overdrive and its app does allow the customization of size and font for most books. They call it text scale and book design on their Libby app and they also offer a font called OpenDyslexic for anyone with dyslexia or who might benefit from its design. This font choice puts more space between words and lines of text and also weighs the bottom of each word with a heavier use of ink.
While an adult reading aloud to a child is the preferred method for sharing a book out loud, it might not always be an option. When it’s not, audio-books are a nice substitute and can even help build a reader’s confidence over time. As McGuire states, “Audiobooks can also be a way of introducing books above your child’s current reading level, so that more complex stories and vocabulary can be introduced and enjoyed” (McGuire 2013). If a child is auditory, it will be even more helpful to listen to the words rather than just see the printed form. When families go in this direction, make sure you give them both the print book and the audiobook.
Read-along options are available for young children and usually include a picture book or beginning reader along with a CD or a playaway. They can also be an option with your e-content vendor. Once books move into the middle grade arena or higher, libraries usually do not buy the book and audiobook as a packaged set, and at Cuyahoga County Public Library, we do not interfile the audiobook copies with the books. We do it this way because the audiobooks can get lost on the shelves among the books and also because there are kids and adult listeners who want an audiobook and prefer to browse just that particular format.
When the two formats are not shelved together, librarians will need to help families take that extra step to match them up. Summer is also a great time to create a display of books and audiobooks together so families can grab and go. Here are some excellent choices that the family can enjoy together.
The right narrator will make an audiobook hard to turn off.
Riordan, Rick. The Lightning Thief. Read by Jesse Bernstein. New York, NY: Listening Library, 2005. unabridged. (Percy Jackson and the Olympians). $40.00. 9780307245304.
Percy Jackson learns he is a demigod in this mix of modern day and Greek mythology.
Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Read by Jim Dale. New York, NY: Listening Library, 1999. unabridged. (Harry Potter). $60.00. 9780807286005.
Harry Potter’s adventures begin when he gets his letter to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Adding the right extras to an audiobook makes listening almost like a cinematic experience.
Colfer, Eoin, and Andrew Donkin. Illegal. Read by Ensemble Cast. Chicago, IL: Dreamscape Media, 2018. unabridged. $64.99. 9781974924592.
Ebo makes the treacherous journey from Ghana to Europe in search of his sister and brother.
Ryan, Pam Muñoz. Echo. Read by Mark Bramhall, David De Vries, MacLeod Andrews, and Rebecca Sole. New York, NY: Scholastic Audio, 2015. unabridged. $39.99. 9780545788366.
Multiple story lines that take place during different periods of history are woven together through a harmonica.
An action-packed narrative will keep listeners engaged.
Brown, Peter. The Wild Robot. Read by Kate Atwater. New York, NY: Hachette Audio, 2016. unabridged. (Wild Robot). $25.00. 9781478938354.
An orphaned gosling imprints on a robot, and they adapt to life together on a deserted island.
Reynolds, Jason. Ghost. Read by Guy Lockard. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Inc., 2016. unabridged. (Track). $64.99. 9781508230489.
Ghost is fast on the track, but learning you cannot outrun your bad choices is a lesson he still needs to learn.
Libraries have an opportunity to support school age kids needing to improve their reading skills in order to reach grade-level proficiency. Many for-profit options are available to families, but libraries have the ability to offer these programs at no charge. The level of reading coaching that a library offers will vary, but no matter the size or type of library, there is an option for you.
The cost of a reading tutor for a child is very expensive, and not every family can afford it. Parents are thrilled when their library can provide a similar service for free, but to do so can be costly. If your library is looking to offer a tutoring service to families with kids who need a little extra help, San Francisco Public Library has laid the groundwork for you.
In 2017, Laura Lay, the learning differences librarian at San Francisco Public Library, started FOG Readers to help first to fourth graders improve their reading skills. Lay had previously worked at a nonprofit where parents could pay $60 to $100 an hour for a tutor to work one-on-one with their child to improve literacy skills like phonics and fluency. However, many families could not afford this expensive program for their children. When Lay started with San Francisco Public Library in 2015, one of her goals was to bring a free version of this program to library customers.
Besides wanting to equalize the access to a phonics-based program, there were several other reasons that helped Lay make her case. The first is that one in five children have been diagnosed with dyslexia and the materials to be used in FOG had already been proven to help dyslexic readers. Second, 50 percent of the third and fourth graders in San Francisco were reading below grade level. Lastly, whether a child was reading below grade level because of a learning challenge like dyslexia, a poor foundation of literacy skills, or because English was not the child’s first language, a program like FOG could help them all.
The foundation for the program used at San Francisco comes from the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education’s Orton-Gillingham program. The training is offered all over the country, but it is a little expensive at $1,200 for 30 hours of training over the course of five days.
Lay already had this training when she started at the library. If your library does not have the financial resources to send someone to training, an alternative could be working with a reading teacher or specialist at your local schools. Through discussions you could create your own curriculum and lesson plans for tutors. San Francisco has also started sharing their curriculum with other libraries.
As of March 2018, there have been 126 pairs matched up and 109 were active at 23 of San Francisco Public Library’s 28 branches. The pairs meet together at a library branch for 45 minutes to 1 hour of one-on-one tutoring each week. Ongoing sessions allow for a relationship to develop and for the child to become more comfortable reading aloud to their tutor. For most children it takes about one year to get through the first two levels of the five-level program and go from learning to read to reading to learn. From here children may graduate from the program and tutors can be matched up with new students. If the tutor and the family want to continue to levels three through five, that is also an option.
Tutors are asked to commit to at least six months when they sign up to volunteer. They are fingerprinted and FBI background checked. Initially tutors were found through Volunteer Match, and many still find out about the program this way, but as FOG has grown so has word-of-mouth advertisement from the current group of tutors. Interestingly, the majority of tutors are millennials from the tech industry who were not regular library users before volunteering. Instead, they have found the program because they are interested in giving back to their community. This ended up being a wonderful opportunity to sign up new library card users and introduce the volunteers to other aspects of the library.
In order to become a tutor, volunteers must attend four one-and-a-half-hour sessions that are offered once a month by Lay. Once completed, the tutors are matched with a child. During these sessions, the tutors learn the basics of the program and how to use the information with the child they are matched up with. Parents are invited to the tutor training so they can see the bones of the program their child will be going through.
FOG Readers is a wonderful way to make an impact in the community and help kids develop as readers. However, you might not have the staffing or financial resources to implement at your library. Not to worry. There are other ways to reach families in need that are less staff- and financially intense.
One way would be to have homework mentors who are available after school to help any child with his or her homework. This can be done with volunteers or paid employees. Cuyahoga County offers homework mentors at 14 branches that do not have homework centers. Homework center branches have a homework coordinator for the site along with tutors who can help with assignments. These are paid positions, usually grant funded, but volunteers can also be used. The difference is that they help with homework rather than tutor to improve specific skills. Depending on the number of kids needing homework help on any given day, the homework mentors or homework center staff will work one-on-one or in small groups to help kids with school assignments. All volunteers and hired staff are background checked.
During my time as a children’s librarian, I ran a book buddies program in the summer. For six weeks, first through third graders could practice their reading with a big book buddy who was usually a middle- or high-school student. Book buddies can also be done with adults acting as the big buddies. Practicing reading with a nonparent can dial down the anxiety that can develop at home.
The Family and Community Services Inc. program coordinator of Foster Grandparents contacted Lori about having their foster grandparent volunteers work with kids at the library. Lori immediately thought of her book buddies program as a natural fit. The foster grandparents typically work with kids in schools, so they would be great listeners for the kids practicing their reading.
The wonderful thing about a book buddies program is that it truly needs minimal preparation and funding, so it works for all types and sizes of libraries. You just need kids to read and someone to listen to them. Preferably one-on-one, but I have had situations where we had to double up the little buddies or the big buddies depending on who showed up that day.
Staff will need to pull a variety of books from the collection for the kids to choose from. These can be beginning readers, chapter books, and nonfiction. Put them on a cart so you can wheel them in and out of the room each week.
Some tips to help make your book buddies program successful:
Lori’s program involved the parents signing up kids for 30 minutes of reading with a volunteer. Part of that 30 minutes also involved reading activities like word searches, crossword puzzles, or phonics games. The volunteers are committed to listening for one and a half hours. Depending on the number of readers signed up, the volunteers might listen to three different readers each time.
At Cuyahoga County Public Library, I structured my book buddies program slightly differently. We would meet for an hour once a week for six weeks over the summer. The first 30 minutes would be the little and big buddies selecting and reading books together. Then the second 30 minutes would be for small and large group reading games. Appendix C offers an example of what a program might look like.
Book Buddies is a fun program for both school and public libraries. It does not have to cost a cent unless you decide to invest in educational games.
Public Library. Decide if you want to work with adults or teens and tweens as your big buddies. If you go with adults, you will need to factor in background checks unless you work with an organization that does that already. Even if you plan to be in the room the whole time, it is still important to have adult library volunteers background checked before they are partnered with a child.
Once you’ve made that decision and worked out the details, move on to deciding when and how often you will offer the program. As you plan, you will need to consider the availability of the room you will use and what other activities kids are involved in that might compete with your program. We found that kids had more time in the summer, but it did not work as well during the school year. For Lori, it worked well to offer during the school year.
While the parents are not a part of the book buddies program, it is actually a great opportunity to pull them aside to share information about other library services and programs. You can offer tours of the library, show them how to download e-books, and talk about the benefits of parents reading aloud. It is also a great chance to let them know your policy for children obtaining a library card of their very own. It might take a little coercion to get caregivers to attend, but if you offer coffee and cookies, that will probably be enough to get them in the door.
School Library. School librarians can help facilitate classes partnering up so that younger readers can practice their reading skills. You can put together class sets of books for the kids to choose from and even offer up the library as a place to read with your buddy. This will increase the circulation of the books in your library and support your colleagues.
Since the parents are not available during the school day, you can include information about the program in your newsletter or on the school library’s website. A list of books that were used is also helpful. Kids may forget the title of the book they were reading and parents can now have access to check. It makes caregivers a part of the program even if they cannot physically be there.
You are probably most familiar with your print collection, but you need to give some attention to the alternate formats too.
Iasevoli, Brenda. “Stop Using the Label ‘Struggling Reader,’ Author Jacqueline Woodson Advises.” Education Week (blog). February 5, 2018. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2018/02/stop_using_the_label_strugglin.html.
McGuire, Maggie. “The Benefits and Pleasures of Listening to Audiobooks.” Raise a Reader (blog). Scholastic Parents. May 15, 2013. https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/raise-a-reader-blog/benefits-and-pleasures-listening-to-audiobooks.html.
Green, John. Fault in Our Stars. Waterville, ME: Thorndike Press Large Print, 2012. 363p. out of print. 9781410450012.
Palacio, R. J. Wonder. Waterville, ME: Thorndike Press Large Print, 2013. 481p. $19.99. 9781410457417.
Shannon, David. A Bad Case of Stripes. New York, NY: The Blue Sky Press, 1998. unpaged. $17.99. 9780590929974.
Lay, Laura. In phone interview with the author. March 23, 2018. Lori. In interview with the author. June 29, 2018.
Grice, Michelle, Lisa Joyce, and Sabine McAlpine. “Engaging Reluctant Readers in Your Library.” Baker and Taylor: A Follett Company and Thorndike Press. September 21, 2017.
“Orton-Gillingham.” Institute for Multi-Sensory Education. Accessed September 16, 2018. https://www.orton-gillingham.com/about-us/orton-gillingham/.