Creating a Community of Reader through Book Recommendations

I saw these book boxes created by Leslie Ann over at Life in Fifth

and knew I had to make some. 

Last year my class loved recommending books to one another. They knew who had similar reading interests and who to go to when they needed something new.  It was exactly what I was hoping when I put it together. I am so much more likely to read something if it is recommended by a friend and kids are too.  Every few weeks kids completed these mini books recommending a favorite recent read. I put them up on the bulletin board and whenever kids were looking for something new they could take a peek at the mini books. 

I always remind kids that it's important to attract the attention of other readers by making the cover interesting and eye-catching.

Then they fill out the inside with all of the details.

This year I wanted kids to be able to recommend books in the moment, as soon as they know it is something they want to recommend rather than trying to think back on books they have read. I also wanted them to be able to recommend books as often as they like. I knew the book boxes from Life in Fifth were perfect. 

So I created my own!

Now instead of the mini-books readers will fill out a bookmark for their recommendations. They will put it in the book and then there is a book box for every student's recommendations. 

It makes it easier to find recommendations by readers with similar interests too! 

I am so excited about this and excited to share it with you too. I hit 100 Facebook likes this week and ya' know it is all the rage to have a FREEBIE ready to go for these sorts of milestones. I just uploaded this whole set to my TpT store. 

I have included both versions of book recommendation systems so you can choose what works best in your class. I hope this gives your community of readers a great start! Let me know what you think. 

:) You can click the picture or HERE to grab yours!