My youngest daughter and I wandered through Bookmans last weekend, eager to spend new trade credit. I wanted to wander in my own direction, but she dragged me back to the kids' section with, "I need your help, Mom! I don't know my genre yet."

I remember this with my older daughter, too, at about the same age. She was almost an independent reader, but finding "just right books" for herself was really difficult. She had a sense of what she liked. She definitely knew what she could handle by herself, but finding something that kept and held her interest and was also appropriate for her age, life experiences and background knowledge was trickier. It often is for kids who are reading "above grade level."

Actually, "grade level" or "reading level" is not always helpful when we are trying to find books for our learners. My oldest struggled to find things that were challenging enough but not too old for her experience. In the adult program, we also struggle to find books for readers who may have lots of life experience but are struggling with text. 

What if we redefined what is "just right" for the reader, beyond a reading or grade level? What if children's books could be "just right" for adults? What if Greek mythology could be "just right" for a second grader?

Looking at my eclectic collection of books in my Goodreads app, there is a vast array of books that were all, at one point in time, "just right" for me. At one point, Mezirow's Learning as Transformation was just right...but not currently. It's really hard and dense. It's not relevant to my current inquiries in the way that Berger's A More Beautiful Question is right now. Sometimes The New Yorker is just right. Other times, it's just too much. In my own reading life, "just right" is defined by my curiosities of the moment, or my goals, or my love of historical fiction, or my desire just to immerse myself in another setting or way of life.

And even as an experienced reader, I love a good children's book -- picture books, wordless books, elementary age or young adult novels. I just spent the weekend deeply engrossed in Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool. I read it thinking about my youngest daughter. Even though the back of the book states a reading level of 5.0 and "for ages 9-12," which should be right for her, it's a really complex book -- in the narrative style (flashbacks) and the setting (WWI) and the issues that arise. By herself, it would be hard work. But what if I went with her to mediate the hard stuff? What if I did the reading and let her "just" listen and work out the pieces for herself? What if I share my own connections and questions out loud as we go? This kind of support is critical for readers of all ages and abilities as they start to navigate increasingly more difficult texts.

What are all the ways that you experience books? How do you choose something that is "just right" for you? Keep that in mind as you look for books for your learners -- purpose, curiosity, interests, goals. Maybe the text is too difficult for them to read independently, but the content might be "just right."

For more ideas on finding and using "just right books" with your learners, see Violet Kennedy, our Library Coordinator. She can help with your search for text and can suggest a variety of ways to engage in the reading of these texts for or with your learners. You might also check out the suggestions in this article from Choice Literacy, one of my favorite literacy blogs.

Enjoy the broad scope of "just right" books,