There's nothing so beautiful as seeing your students happily reading, am I right? I've been working really hard this year to convert so of my not-big-fans-of-reading into voracious readers...and I am starting to see them take off now!

One of my favorite tools to help with this has been our Book Request Form...and I wanted to share it with you.

The book request process is very simple.

I leave the form on a shelf in the classroom library. My students fill it out with any new books they are anxious to read...or the next book in a series (can you tell we read the Lemonade War together this year?).

I order all the books I am able to with our Scholastic bonus points. And some books I order on Amazon (if they are a reasonable price and my students are dying to get their hands on a particular title...because, well, Amazon Prime!).

Once I order a book, I pencil in the date the books are expected to arrive...to avoid the endless "are the books here yet?" questions each day!

There are two things I love about all of this.

First, it keeps my hungry readers well-fed. I don't want any lapse between books and this helps nicely if we don't currently have a title available in our library. Or if my students are really taken with a new genre or author.

Second, and most importantly, I LOVE that it gives my students a voice in our classroom library. They choose the books they want to enhance OUR library.

And their opinions matter.

Seeing a classmate ask for and enjoy a new book instantly engages other readers...and they want to try that book as well.

Would you like to use the Book Request Form in your class?

Please click the image below to download a copy...