Reading beyond the book
Discover fun, affordable ways to engage young readers using Science of Reading strategies, digital books, library resources, and reading support.
7/9/20268 min read
Beyond the Book: Creative Ways to Get Kids Engaged in Reading
Recently, a parent of two students I work with asked me an important question: “What are some ways I can help my children become more engaged in reading?”
This is a question many parents have. Some children naturally enjoy picking up a book, while others may need help finding reading materials that interest them. Some children avoid reading because it feels difficult, while others may not yet have discovered the right book, topic, or way to experience a story.
I shared several ideas and resources with this parent, and I wanted to share some of that same information with other families. Reading does not always have to mean sitting quietly with a traditional chapter book. Children can build reading skills while watching a favorite show with captions, listening to a digital story, joining a summer reading program, exploring a graphic novel, or reading about a topic they already enjoy.
The goal is to provide positive reading experiences while helping children build skills, confidence, curiosity, and a lifelong connection with reading.
Understanding the Science of Reading and Brain Readiness
Before children can become confident readers, their brains must build connections between spoken language, printed letters, sounds, words, and meaning.
Unlike learning to speak, learning to read does not happen naturally for most children. The brain must develop new pathways that connect the areas responsible for recognizing letters, processing speech sounds, understanding language, and making meaning from text. These connections grow through explicit instruction, meaningful practice, repetition, and positive reading experiences.
The Science of Reading is a large body of research about how children learn to read and which instructional practices are most effective. Strong reading instruction includes several connected skills:
Phonemic awareness—the ability to hear, identify, blend, and separate sounds in spoken words
Phonics—understanding the relationship between letters and sounds
Fluency—reading accurately, smoothly, and with appropriate expression
Vocabulary—understanding the meanings of words
Comprehension—understanding, remembering, and thinking about what is read
Children also need to be ready to learn. Sleep, nutrition, movement, emotional well-being, background knowledge, and opportunities to talk and listen can all affect attention and learning. A child who is tired, hungry, overwhelmed, or worried may have difficulty focusing on reading instruction, even when the lesson is appropriate.
Brain readiness does not mean waiting until a child reaches a certain age or suddenly becomes ready to read. It means creating conditions that support learning while providing instruction that matches the child’s current skills.
Reading engagement and evidence-based reading instruction work together. Fun books, read-alouds, captions, digital stories, and reading choices can help children become interested in reading. However, children who struggle to recognize words may also need direct and systematic instruction in sounds, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, or comprehension.
Engagement helps children want to read, while effective instruction helps give them the skills to read successfully.
Turn On Closed Captioning
One of the easiest ways to add more reading to a child’s day is to turn on closed captioning while watching television shows, movies, educational videos, or other age-appropriate programs.
Closed captions allow children to hear words while seeing them written on the screen. This provides additional exposure to vocabulary, spelling patterns, sentence structure, and commonly used words. Children may not even realize they are interacting with print because they are focused on enjoying the program.
Captions may be especially helpful when children watch educational programs, documentaries, or shows related to topics they are learning about in school. Parents can occasionally pause the program to discuss a new word, make a prediction, or talk about what happened.
However, families do not need to turn every show into a lesson. Simply hearing language while seeing the matching words provides another opportunity for children to interact with print.
Closed captioning is a helpful addition to reading instruction, but it does not replace explicit teaching or time spent reading books. Think of captions as another way to increase exposure to words throughout the day.
Watch Read-Aloud Books Online
Online read-alouds can provide children with opportunities to hear fluent reading while enjoying a story. Some digital books and read-aloud videos display the pages while highlighting words as they are read.
This allows children to hear the pronunciation, expression, phrasing, and pacing of a fluent reader while following the printed words. Hearing fluent reading can help children learn what smooth, expressive reading sounds like.
Parents can look for read-alouds provided by authors, publishers, libraries, schools, or trusted educational organizations. Children can follow along with a copy of the book when one is available or simply listen and enjoy the story.
After reading, parents might ask:
What was your favorite part?
Which character did you like best?
What problem happened in the story?
How was the problem solved?
What new word did you hear?
What do you think might happen next?
Did this story remind you of anything you have experienced?
Keep the conversation relaxed. The goal is to encourage children to think and talk about books without making every reading experience feel like a test.
Reading aloud also helps build vocabulary, background knowledge, listening comprehension, and an understanding of how stories and informational texts are organized. Children can often understand books read aloud to them that are more advanced than the books they can currently read independently.
Explore Free Digital Reading Resources Through South Dakota Libraries
Families do not always need to purchase books or pay for reading subscriptions. South Dakota libraries provide access to digital reading resources that can help children become more engaged and confident readers.
Scholastic BookFlix is available at no cost to South Dakota residents through the South Dakota State Library. Designed primarily for students in grades K–3, BookFlix pairs animated fiction stories with related nonfiction e-books.
For example, a child might enjoy an animated story about animals and then explore a nonfiction book to learn more about the same topic. Pairing fiction and nonfiction can help children build vocabulary, background knowledge, and connections between ideas.
Many stories include professional narration and highlighted text, allowing children to hear the words while following along on the screen. Vocabulary activities, educational games, and interactive features can make reading enjoyable while supporting reading development.
TumbleBookLibrary is available through many local South Dakota public libraries, including the Brookings Public Library. This digital collection offers animated and narrated books for elementary-aged students.
As children listen, words are highlighted on the screen, helping them connect spoken language with printed words and follow the story more easily. In addition to animated picture books, TumbleBookLibrary includes narrated chapter-book read-alongs that may appeal to older elementary students.
Resources such as BookFlix and TumbleBookLibrary may be especially helpful for beginning readers, reluctant readers, children learning English, and students who benefit from hearing and seeing words at the same time. They also provide additional reading opportunities during weekends, school breaks, summer vacation, or anytime children want to enjoy a story.
Parents can contact their local public library or visit the South Dakota State Library’s online resources to learn how to access these programs. Some resources may require a library card or login information.
Join a Free or Low-Cost Book Club or Reading Program
Reading can be even more enjoyable when children have opportunities to share books and participate in activities with others.
Check with your local public library for free book clubs, story times, reading challenges, and special events for children and teens. Many libraries also offer summer reading programs that encourage children to continue reading while school is out.
Summer reading programs may include:
Reading goals
Prizes
Crafts
Educational activities
Family events
Guest readers
Opportunities to discover new books
Families can also look for statewide book distribution programs. For example, the South Dakota Humanities Council’s Young Readers Book Drop provides books to elementary and middle school students. Programs like this introduce children to new authors and topics while helping them build home libraries at little or no cost.
Educators, programs serving children, and eligible families may also be able to access free or low-cost books through organizations such as First Book. Eligibility is generally connected to serving children from low-income communities, so parents and educators should review the organization’s current qualifications and available programs.
Families can also create a simple book club at home. Family members can read the same book—or choose different books about a shared topic—and meet once a week to discuss what they learned or enjoyed.
Add a favorite snack, create a comfortable reading area, or watch the movie version after finishing the book. A family book club can turn reading into a shared experience instead of another assignment.
Find High-Interest Books at the Right Reading Level
Some children are interested in topics designed for their age but need books written at a more accessible reading level. This can be especially challenging for older elementary and middle school students who may feel embarrassed reading books with younger-looking covers, illustrations, or topics.
Look for high-interest, low-reading-level books, often called Hi-Lo books. These books feature age-appropriate topics, characters, illustrations, and covers while using accessible vocabulary, shorter sentences, manageable chapters, and supportive text features.
Hi-Lo books may include topics such as:
Sports
Mysteries
Adventure
Animals
Science and technology
Survival stories
Friendship
Humor
History
Video games
Real-world challenges
Parents can ask teachers, librarians, reading specialists, or tutors for recommendations. Used bookstores, library book sales, educational publishers, and online book retailers may also offer Hi-Lo reading collections.
The goal is not to limit children to easier books forever. The goal is to provide books they can successfully read while gradually building reading skills, stamina, independence, and confidence.
A child may listen to a more advanced book for enjoyment while independently reading a book that matches their current skill level. Both experiences are valuable.
Let Children Choose What They Read
Reading does not always have to mean reading a traditional chapter book. Children may enjoy many different types of reading materials, including:
Graphic novels
Comic books
Magazines
Joke books
Cookbooks
Sports articles
Fact books
Craft instructions
Game directions
Poetry
Song lyrics
Kid-friendly news articles
Travel brochures
Directions for science experiments
Choice can be a powerful motivator.
If a child enjoys Minecraft, dinosaurs, horses, sports, cooking, art, space, video games, crafts, nature, or animals, look for reading materials connected to those interests.
When children are interested in a topic, they are often more willing to work through challenging words, learn new vocabulary, and spend additional time reading.
Parents can offer two or three appropriate choices rather than asking, “What do you want to read?” Providing a smaller number of choices can make the decision easier while still allowing children to feel ownership.
Celebrate Reading Effort and Growth
Children develop reading skills at different rates. Instead of focusing only on reading levels, difficult words, test scores, or the number of pages completed, celebrate effort and growth.
You might say:
“You stayed focused for ten minutes today.”
“You worked hard to figure out that word.”
“I noticed you went back and reread that sentence.”
“You remembered an important detail from the story.”
“You finished an entire chapter!”
“You used the sounds in the word instead of guessing.”
“You asked a great question about the story.”
Specific encouragement helps children recognize the strategies they are using and the progress they are making.
Small successes can help children begin to view themselves as capable readers. Reading confidence often grows when children feel supported rather than rushed or compared to others.
When Additional Reading Instruction May Help
Sometimes children avoid reading because it feels difficult, tiring, or frustrating. They may struggle with:
Hearing and working with sounds in words
Connecting letters with sounds
Decoding unfamiliar words
Reading accurately
Reading smoothly and fluently
Understanding vocabulary
Remembering information
Answering questions about a text
Explaining what they have read
Providing more books is valuable, but access to books alone may not address an underlying reading difficulty. Some students need explicit, systematic, and targeted reading instruction in addition to opportunities to enjoy books.
Tutoring can help identify areas of strength and skills that may need additional instruction. Individualized support can provide guided practice, immediate feedback, repetition, and opportunities to experience success.
At Cindy’s Tutoring Services, reading instruction is designed to meet students where they are and help them continue moving forward. Instruction may focus on phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, morphology, or a combination of skills based on each student’s individual needs.
If your child needs extra reading instruction or you are unsure which reading skills may need additional support, Cindy’s Tutoring Services would be glad to provide a free consultation. We can discuss your concerns, talk about your child’s strengths and needs, and explore possible next steps.
Reading should not feel like a punishment. With encouragement, engaging reading materials, evidence-based instruction, meaningful practice, and access to the right resources, children can build skills and experience success.
Every book, caption, article, graphic novel, digital story, read-aloud, and reading conversation provides another opportunity to learn.
The most important step may simply be helping each child find a way to connect with reading—and providing the instruction and support needed to become a confident reader.
