If you love reading, you know what it feels like when you don’t have a good book within reach. Book lovers might even be reading a couple of books at one time and always have a stack waiting nearby. Readers love to read because the right book takes us into the Reading Zone. We lose track of time, we see a movie behind our eyelids, and we’re transported off and away.

But when you’re a new reader, a struggling reader, or someone who has just a few favorites, reading might not be enjoyable. For some, reading is downright painful.

Reading books that are boring, too easy, too hard, or don’t capture our interests are also painful.

If we want our children to be life-long readers, they must find books they love. Books that are just right.

Use the strategies below to help your reader find the right book, get into the reading zone, and find a love of reading.

Survey your Reader– What does your child love right now? What movies or shows do they like to watch? What do they play with? Pretend? Where have you traveled, or where will you be going? What are they struggling with? What change has come their way?

Our interests, play, and the way we spend our time can offer all sorts of topics and genres.

Explore– Books have all sorts of clues to help readers find out if they’ll be a good fit. Read the summary, the flaps, and the first page or two. Flip through the pictures. Look to see if anything resonates or sparks interest.

Ask Around– Who do you know who loves to read? Ask friends, family, the librarian, and mentors.

Favorite authors, movies your child loves, cartoon characters, and books in a series are great places to start.

If your reader is into superheroes, comic books might be a good genre.

If they love crime fighters, maybe mystery.

Don’t forget about non-fiction. Dinosaur lovers, bug finders, and fort builders have plenty of books to choose from, too.

Let the Reader Decide! The most important way you can help your reader find the right book is to allow them to choose their book.

Even if it seems below their grade or reading level, even if it’s always in the same genre, even if it’s the same book over and over again, let the reader choose.

It doesn’t matter what is read; readers are people who read.

Give Readers Time- Finding the right book can take a while.

Strew books around the house, go to the library and bookstores, grab a pile of books, and read a few pages of each out loud to them.

Allow Kids to Abandon Books– Sometimes a book looks like it will be a good fit and just isn’t. There is no quicker way to stifle a reader than to make a child finish a book they don’t like.

To help foster a love of reading and help our children see the value of being a reader, we can encourage reading by reading with our kids, to our kids, and by letting them see us read.

We can encourage reading by listening to audiobooks (we love to listen to them in the car and at night), talking about the books we’re reading, asking kids about what they are reading, and by making sure there are plenty of different types of things to read around the house.

Reading for joy and information opens up worlds for our children, here and beyond.

A reader grows by finding a perfect fit, a just right book, and then another and another.