Now that there are six titles in the Your Next Read Silver series out in the world, we’re seeing a lot of discussion about the three ICONS that appear on the cover (front, back and spine) of each and every book.
“The icons on the back are such a smart little reading compass. Kids can spot the themes they love, compare books, follow their curiosity and choose what feels right for them. That choice is huge.” – Fiona Smyth, author and educator
“What makes the Your Next Read series effective is they … have clear themes and icons to help children choose books they’ll enjoy.” – Lucy, LoveFourReading
What are the Your Next Read icons
The icons are foiled and flashy and add to the utterly collectable nature of the series – but they also have an important role to play in helping young readers learn to self-select books.
“Our Your Next Read icons capture the magic of the conversations great booksellers and librarians have with kids – those moments where you really listen and connect a reader with exactly the right story,” says series publisher Tash Besliev, the executive publisher of Children’s Publishing at Simon & Schuster. “The icons translate that guidance into something visual and intuitive, helping children (or parents and gift givers) navigate books for themselves.”
In other words, they take the Your Kid’s Next Read ‘curation’ experience and translate it directly to the bookshop or library shelf. YKNR members usually arrive into the community with very specific requirements – ‘my five year old likes adventure stories with turtles and pirates’ – and the community pulls together to find a great list of titles for that reader.
Think of the Your Next Read series icons in the same way.
The young reader described above, for instance, might look for books displaying the Adventure, Animals and Fantasy or History icons.
But the icons also offer a great way for readers to discover NEW kinds of stories that feature the elements and themes they know and love – because they might pick up a book like ‘A Horse In A Tree’ by Peter Cheong, which features the Adventure and Animals elements they’re looking for, but adds in something new (and suprising).
Or perhaps they’ll be drawn to the Animals icon of ‘Dragon Beach’ by Kylie Howarth and Gus Gordon, and discover they love its Fantasy and Family elements as well.
“The icons spark curiosity and confidence,” says Tash. ‘They can invite young readers to either follow their favourite genre, or step outside their comfort zones and discover stories they didn’t know they were looking for.”
Why learning to self select books is essential for growing readers
While it might be tempting to ‘manage’ our kids’ reading for efficiency or challenge or [insert adult reason of choice], the key to building a lifelong reader is actually helping a child to learn to choose books for themselves.
“As educators and library staff, we are always working alongside young readers to help them discern what they’d like to read and to build their ability to self-select,” says Team Your Kid’s Next Read’s Megan Daley, an award-winning teacher librarian. “This is about more than simply picking a book off a shelf. It’s about helping young people know more about themselves as readers: building their reading identity, and building their confidence to navigate books in familiar and unfamiliar places and forms such as the school library, the public library, the home bookshelf, the e-reader, the bookstore.”
And while that might mean a lot more waiting in bookshops and libraries while kids dither among the bookshelves, it also means we are giving young readers the freedom to choose their own reading path.
‘If we, as the adults and educators in a child’s life, hand them every book they ever read in those early years of independent reading, we are not helping them to flex their reading identity,” says Megan. “And we risk them not being able to independently decide on their next read. The moment a child finishes one book and thinks what do I want to read next? is a skill. And like all skills, it needs practice.”
Here’s a full list of the Your Next Read Silver series icons
•Funny stories
•School
•Sport
•Friends
•Mystery
•Family
•Animals
•Spooky stories
•Sci-fi
•Heart-warming
•Arts
•Action/Adventure
•Fantasy
•Surprising stories
•STEM
•History
How to use the icons at your house
Megan Daley offers the following tip for making the most of the icons at your place.
Use the Your Next Read series icons almost as picture cards. Show them all the icons and talk about what those icons mean to you as a reader and describe some of the things that might be included in a book with that icon.
This helps to build dialogue around what themes they might like to read about and in turn builds that reading identity and ability to self-select.
The icons act as visual prompts for your child and as talking points about what they like in the books they choose.
The first six titles in the Your Next Read Silver series (with their icons)
- ‘The Lonely Lunch Club’ by Maddy Mara and Laura Stitzel – Friends, School, Funny Stories
- ‘Will Fin Win?’ by Jane Godwin and Tom Jellett – Animals, Sport, Friends
- ‘The Missing Pencil Case’ by Jasmin McGaughey and Jade Goodwin – Funny Stories, Mystery, Friends
- ‘Bea, Bart & the Birds’ by Katrina Nannestad and Cheryl Orsini – Animals, Surprising Stories, Family
- ‘Dragon Beach’ by Kylie Howarth and Gus Gordon – Animals, Fantasy, Family
- ‘A Horse In A Tree’ by Peter Cheong – Surprising Stories, Adventure, Animals
And, of course, each title also features a quiz in the back to make the process of identifying Your Next Read even easier! But that’s an article for another day.
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