Try This Easy Way to Find New Books for Your Child

Match Their Age to Get Great Reads

• What: Trick for picking kids’ books
• When: 3 years and up
• Why: Easy, simple, effective
• Where: At home

Have a child who loves to read but you have trouble keeping them in reading material? Can’t find time to locate new books for your child to enjoy? If you want an easy rule of thumb to figure out appropriate books for a child at any stage of their reading journey, try this trick.

Choose books with the main character roughly the same age as your child. The protagonist offers an excellent indicator of the market demographics for readers. This advice works for kids of almost any age. Have a toddler? Picture books about other toddlers will delight them when you read aloud together. 

Got a kid in grade school? Look for books like Junie B. Jones to find first graders as the focal point of the story. The Ramona books with their beloved eight-year-old leading lady work great for third graders. For younger kids still in preschool, try If I Built a Car or I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato.

This strategy works for older kids in middle school and their teen year, too. Rick Riordan’s books offer middle school aged characters, so kids can identify with the stories’ situations. You can even match the gender of the character to your child to narrow down the selection further.

If you need more reading material your kids will love, with age appropriate subject matter and just the right amount of drama, this general rule helps make great picks.