First off, thanks to Leigh Ann for having me here at Shelf Consumed! It’s an honor because I’m a dedicated librarian groupie; if I didn’t have such a loud talking voice, maybe I’d be one of you. Instead, I’m a teacher who became a YA writer.
I owe that journey almost entirely to my (formerly) reluctant readers. In our work to find the key that would unlock the joy of reading for them, they told me about a book they wanted to read but couldn’t find. That book became What Can’t Wait, and students also helped me find the story for my new novel, The Knife and the Butterfly.
I’ll tell you a bit about both novels, but my main purpose here today is to dish out my top 5 tips for snagging reluctant readers and bringing out the bookworm within them.
Here’s the scoop on What Can’t Wait: Seventeen-year-old Marisa Moreno has smarts and plenty of promise, but she’s marooned in a broken-down Houston neighborhood—and in a Mexican immigrant family where making ends meet matters more than making it to college. At school, it's another story. Marisa's calc teacher expects her to ace the AP test and to get into an engineering program in Austin—a city that seems unimaginably far away. When her home life becomes unbearable, Marisa seeks comfort elsewhere—and suddenly neither her best friend nor boyfriend can get through to her. Caught between the expectations of two different worlds and carrying a dark secret, Marisa will finally have to decide what can't wait.
Kirkus Reviews called What Can’t Wait “un magnífico debut,” and it recently made YALSA’s 2012 Best Fiction for YA list. (Full reviews of What Can’t Wait from loads of publications all in one place here.) I’m even more excited to report that I’ve heard from librarians from Boston to Austin that this is a title they can’t keep on the shelf!
The Knife and the Butterfly, my latest novel, was just released on February 1. The grittiness goes up a couple of notches in this novel, not because I celebrate violence but because that’s the reality of the world my characters live in. Here’s the low-down:
Azael Arevalo wishes he could remember how the fight ended. He knows his MS13 boys faced off with some punks from Crazy Crew. He can picture the bats, the bricks, the chains. A knife. But he can’t remember anything between that moment and when he woke behind bars. Azael knows jails, and something isn’t right about this lockup. No phone call. No lawyer. No news about his brother or his homies. The only thing they make him do is watch some white girl in some cell. Watch her and try to remember.
Lexi Allen would love to forget the fight, would love for it to disappear back into the Xanax fog it came from. And her mother and her lawyer hope she chooses not to remember too much about the brawl—at least when it’s time to testify. Lexi knows that there’s more at stake in her trial than her life alone, though. Azael needs the truth. The knife cut, but somehow it also connected.
Kirkus Reviews called The Knife and the Butterfly “An unflinching portrait with an ending that begs for another reading,” and the fabulous Jordan Sonnenblick of Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie praised it as “harrowing, heart-rending, and ultimately hopeful.” Reviews are still rolling in, but they are continually updated here.
Put The Knife and the Butterfly in the hands of any reader—even the most reluctant—and see what happens. I think you’ll like the results. I wrote with the question, “what would keep my non-readers reading?” always in mind. Which brings me to…
Ashley Hope Pérez’s 5 Keys to Snagging Reluctant Readers
(1) Meet readers where they are. This goes for reading level, length of books, topic, and genre. Of course, I’m preaching to the choir, but many people recommend books to teens based on what they (the recommender) likes. Instead, I leave my preferences aside and try to steer students toward books based on what THEY say about their interests and past reading (or movie watching, for those who insist they’ve never liked a book). Here’s a simple questionnaire that I had students fill out and bring with them on our first trip to the library to give me a starting place for our conversations about books.
(2) Make it easy to find appealing choices. I used to plant books in prominent places in my room so students could stumble upon them. They seemed to like this better than a hard sell, and that also made it okay for them to lay the book aside if it didn’t appeal after all. My reluctant readers seemed to really respond to “If you like X, then try Y…” displays in our library. Also, our librarian renamed one shelving cart “Hot Titles” and filled it with books that were recently returned or frequently checked out, a de facto recommendation from kids’ peers.
(3) Build buzz by giving students time, tools, and space to talk about books they love. When students finish a book and rave about it, have them make a two-sentence pitch for the book saying who would like it and why. These can be displayed or kept in a notebook. These became dog-eared reference in my classroom and soon, students were recommending books to each other. 1-minute book pitches to students as a group work well even coming from a librarian; have another student give the pitch, and good luck keeping that book inside your library!
(4) Encourage readers to make the text their own. I’ve found that, for reluctant readers, making a personal connection to books is the difference between caring (and reading) and letting it fall by the wayside. When using library books or class sets, I provide students with ample tools to annotate their texts as they read (the POUNDS of sticky notes we went through…), and every day after choice reading students wrote briefly in their multi-genre reading log. I also kept poster boards up in the classroom where students could put a sticky note about what they, personally, were getting out of their reading. They loved the idea that our reading time—even though it came in the middle of class—was actually all about pursuing a direction that they chose on their own.
(5) BELIEVE that there is a gateway book for the reluctant reader in front of you. I saw a lot of non-readers become readers over the course of their time with me, but many (many!) of the cases looked pretty hopeless at the beginning. There were sullen glares, rolled eyes, shrugged shoulders… just about every gesture of indifference and disdain that you can fathom. I never responded to this negativity; my optimism—and my belief that there was a book that would change their minds—was iron-clad. All the tips and tricks in the world are empty unless we believe there is something in books, not just for the vague, faceless everyone, but for the specific and difficult teen someone presently refusing eye contact.
Thanks for letting me share some of what I’ve learned about unlocking the reader within reluctant teens. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me if you have questions or if there’s any way I can repay the good work of many librarians in my life. Also, I do free skype sessions with teen groups, reading clubs, and classrooms (and live author stuff when we’re not living in Paris).
Bon courage!
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Ask for The Knife and the Butterfly from your favorite local bookseller or order it from my publisher with a school and library discount.
More interviews, excerpts, guest posts, and secrets (including two truths and a lie) coming throughout Ashley’s The Knife and the Butterfly blog tour. See the full tour schedule here.
