Promoting Children’s Reading…
Benefits for you
Our Schools Page is an opportunity for your school to display your recommended reading lists for your parental and student community to view online.
Student Bookshelves
Encouraging children to read and write
Children will be able to open their own My Reading Den account using a login that we will supply to your school. Once they have an account, they will be able to write their own reviews and build up their own online bookshelf.
Please click here to see an example of a student’s bookshelf.
Children gain a real sense of ownership through watching their bookshelves grow. Their confidence in their own reading ability will increase with each book they read. The other many benefits of reading include; a heightened sense of curiosity about the world, a broadened vocabulary, the development of cognitive and literary skills important for learning in all subjects, and of course the pure enjoyment gained from reading a good book.
Book Reviews
Your students’ thoughts
In order for a book to be added to their bookshelf students will need to write a review via the online review form which can be accessed on each individual book’s synopsis page and at the bottom of a Schools Book List page.
Learning to write book reviews has many benefits for children, a few of which we have listed below.
- Writing how they felt about a book gives a child an insight into how they reacted to what they have read and so builds a greater self-understanding.
- Children develop an ability to communicate how they feel in words, an essential life skill.
- Children learn to form and communicate their own opinions, and become more self-confident as a result.
Reading Incentives/Rewards
To encourage your students and build their reading confidence!
As a school you can decide whether or not to follow the Our Reading Den Badge structure which is shown below. We will provide you with certificates and stickers to award to the students as they meet these challenges.
| Read 5 books | Bronze certificate |
| Read 10 books | Silver certificate |
| Read 20 books | Gold certificate |
| Read 30 books | Platinum certificate |
| Read 40 books | Platinum Plus certificate |
| Read 50 books | Reading Hero certificate and trophy |
Helpful Hints
Recommended Reading Lists
A school’s recommended reading list is not an exhaustive list and children should be encouraged to visit the For Kids and Reviews page of Our Reading Den to discover other books for themselves, as well as visit the school and local libraries.
A list should include books in a range of genres to meet all reading tastes and of varying reading levels to cover different reading abilities. There is a place on the list for the classics, books by contemporary authors, poetry and graphic novels.
Competent readers who are whizzing through the lists can be encouraged to look at books for the years above. Please bear in mind that Year 5/6 books may contain more mature themes then Year 3/4 books and teachers and parents should use their discretion in selecting them for a child.
Reluctant readers or those who are finding books on their School year list challenging can look at the list for the years below, or explore our Kickstarter page which has suggested books especially for reluctant readers.
Purchasing Books
Our Partners
There is the opportunity for parents to buy books through Our Reading Den. To help bring our users the best children’s books we have partnered up with Waterstones, you will see buy buttons next to our book reviews which allow users to purchase the books quickly and easily online. Every time a user make a purchase a small commission comes to us (at no cost to them! ) This goes to help us improve Our Reading Den and allows us to keep presenting users with the very best book reviews for children by children.
There are also some great online second-hand book sellers that sell children’s books, and some charities have dedicated second-hand book shops which are often a treasure trove of children’s books.