What most makes a book appealing to a reluctant reader? Is it one that is short, easy to read, or written at a low reading level? Is it a good cover? A fast-paced plot? Interesting subject matter? The answer: all and none of these. For example, Stephanie Meyers' Twilight is phenomenally popular with wide variety of readers -- it does have a great cover and vampires and werewolves, but the book is also quite long. Meanwhile, other short books languish untouched on shelves.
After several years of working with reluctant-to- read students, the best advice I have is that our reluctant readers are very different, and the way to make a connection with your reluctant readers is through a one-on-one relationship. Get to know the teens, find out their interests, remember those interests, and seek out books that reflect those interests.
There are tools out there to help you, prepared by those who are dedicated to the task. Joy Millam is the chair of the Young Adult Services Association's Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers committee. She's put together a wiki that her committee uses to discuss new books for reluctant readers and to give examples of what makes a good Quick Pick. After the committee vets its choices, they work together to make lists of the books that show the most success with reluctant readers. The lists they've created since 1996 are online. Just remember when using these selection lists that they cover a wide age range (from 12-19) AND that reluctant readers can be very sensitive to trends -- older lists may have titles that were very hot in their year, but today may seem as dated as a leisure suit. For those who work with large numbers of reluctant readers, mandatory reading should be Connecting with Reluctant Teen Readers.The authors of this title have years of experience in working successfully with reluctant-to-read teens, and share numerous tools of their trade.
Finally, read books along with your reluctant readers. When you demonstrate that you are interested and you find something good to say about the books they're reading, the students feel validated and will come back to you for future choices.
