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Fall Into Books with Your Students This Fall

Stacey Shubitz

Up until last week, if you had asked me what book I’d recommend you read to your students to get them excited about Reading Workshop (Yes, Reading Workshop.  I know, I know, this is a blog about Writing Workshop, but sometimes we have to write about reading!), I’d suggest Wolf by Becky Bloom.  Sure there are lots of books that contain characters who love to read, but Wolf is the first one that would have come to mind as a good book to read to your elementary school class during the first week of school.

A new book, Dog Loves Books, found its way into my hands, and my heart, last week thanks to a review copy I received from Random House.  This picture book, written by  Louise Yates, is about a dog who LOVES books.  He can spend hours reading books, which means that he shuts of everything and everyone else in the world and gets completely lost in the books he reads.  This is a luxury he has because he has his own bookstore, which at first isn’t frequented by any customers.  However, as time passes, a real customer comes in and asks Dog for a book recommendation.  Because he is well-read and enthusiastic about reading, Dog knows exactly which books to recommend to her.

This book allows children to realize that books can take them to new places and on adventures they may not be able to have in their real lives.  Dog Loves Books also helps children realize the power and importance of knowing books well so they’re able to give recommendations to others since one of the most amazing things about reading is sharing beloved books with other people.

Whether you want to introduce reading partnerships or a book recommendation system to your students, Dog Loves Books is an excellent read aloud to use in your classroom to get your students excited about reading and sharing books with each other.

Please leave a comment about the book(s) you use to inspire your students to get into reading during the first weeks of the school year. Be sure to leave the title, author, and any accompanying activities you do with your class in your comment.  🙂

Published by Stacey Shubitz

I am a literacy consultant who focuses on writing workshop. I've been working with K-6 teachers and students since 2009. Prior to that, I was a fourth and fifth-grade teacher in New York City and Rhode Island. I'm the author of Craft Moves (Stenhouse Publishers, 2016) and the co-author of Jump Into Writing (Zaner-Bloser, 2021), Welcome to Writing Workshop (Stenhouse Publishers, 2019), and Day By Day (Stenhouse, 2010). I live in Central Pennsylvania with my husband and children. In my free time, I enjoy swimming, doing Pilates, cooking, baking, making ice cream, and reading novels.

5 thoughts on “Fall Into Books with Your Students This Fall”

  1. I introduce my reader’s to the workshop atmosphere with an Andrew Clements novel. They love his writing and I have found it really lifts the quality of writing for my boys when I use it. Last year we read Frindle, but this year we are reading No Talking. Started it today and it is a HUGE hit!

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  2. Please feel free to write about reading anytime. My school is doing Reader’s Workshop training today and tomorrow to get us ready for school. I did some Writer’s Workshop training over the summer and wow am I feeling immersed! Bring it on!

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  4. I found a new one that I love called the Incredible Book Eating Boy. It’s about a boy who starts eating books and gets really smart, until one day when he eats to many and gets sick. After that he can barely tie his shoes so he decides to read the books instead. It’s a really cute book and it even has a bite chunk taken out of the back cover. What I like about it is the bigger message that it’s not enough to just devour books but that you need to think about them and enjoy them as well. : )

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  5. I know that it seems passe to use Brown Bear, Brown Bear on the first day of school but I teach preschool and our first day is orientation day for the families as well so I have parents sitting with their children for our first story time. Most of my families don’t speak English and so Brown Bear is successful because everyone gets into the rhythm of it and the parents are so happy that their children demonstrate success on the first day. It also becomes the perfect set up for I Went Walking (sorry the author’s name escapes me!) that I use for more curriculum and book-making the rest of the first month.

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