Grandville — In the Cummings Elementary library, fourth-grader Izaiah Medawis looked through a pile of books in a bin labeled “funny” and pursed his lips.
Sensing his indecision, library supervisor Toni Burdick reached over and picked out two from the bin, holding them up “so you can get a better look,” she told him.
Izaiah put his hands on his hips and pressed his lips together harder as his eyes darted between the two. Burdick grinned.
“Here,” she said, shaking the book in her right hand. “I think you might like this one.”
‘Normally it’s the boy who is the main character, but this time it’s the girl who is talking and I liked that.’
— fourth-grader Ada Woudstra
Izaiah took it gratefully and began examining the cover, pencil in hand to jot down notes.
The fourth-grader and his classmates got to examine several new-to-them books like this during a recent “book tasting” hosted by Burdick. Students found themselves seated at tables with placemats and “menus” in front of them. Each table had a bin full of books of different genres, like scary fiction, fantasy, nonfiction and realistic fiction.
The activity was simple, Burdick told the class: Pick out a book from the bin that looks interesting. Take a look at the front and back covers. Then, with a timer set, read a part of the book for three minutes. When those three minutes are up, use the “menu” to answer a few questions: What is the genre? After reading a few pages, what do you think of the book? What do you think of the cover? What did the author do to interest you in the book?
The goal, she said, was to get kids to “broaden their horizons for what they’re reading” and try something new. There was no expectation that they took a book home with them — just that they gave it a try.
“Kids get pigeonholed all the time — just like we all do — and get used to reading the same kind of book,” Burdick said. “I want the kids to experience something that maybe they wouldn’t normally pick up, but they’re hesitant to do that, even if I recommend it. By doing this, they get just a little sample of something outside their comfort zone and might find that they actually like it.”
The library supervisor has been hosting book tastings at Cummings for several years now, originally with fifth- and sixth-graders, and now with fourth-graders. She said the restaurant and “tasting” theme came from the short amount of time readers spend with each book.
“They’re only getting a small, three-minute taste of this book, and a taste of this genre,” she said. “I’m always amazed at how ‘into it’ they get and how quiet they are. Fourth-graders are never quiet like that, but all I’m asking for is three minutes, and they can do that; they think it’s pretty cool.”
This particular book tasting had some wins and some polite declines, as they usually do. Fourth-grader Nathan Johnson found a book about baseball star Derek Jeter, which Nathan decided to check out because he also plays baseball. On the other hand, classmate Sofia Gonzalez enjoyed a book she found about bees but decided to leave it for another reader.
“I liked the book, but I really wanted, like, a chapter book or something to read — something longer,” Sofia said, adding that the book tasting was “fun, because you get to learn about other books that you can’t really know about without doing that.”
Ada Woudstra was excited to check out a book in the “funny” genre, something the fourth-grader said she hadn’t done before.
“I liked the cover of (the book) and since I read a few pages of it I thought I would like reading (more of) it,” Ada said. “There’s two characters and normally it’s the boy who is the main character, but this time it’s the girl who is talking and I liked that.
“I like reading a lot, and I like getting graphic novels, so I don’t think I would have normally gotten this one, but now I want to read it.”
Burdick said her favorite part of any book tasting is the delayed gratification, when a student returns their tasting book a few weeks later and asks if she has more “like this.”
“It’s like you see them go, ‘Oh, historical fiction IS interesting,’” she said. “That’s the best thing, when they can find out on their own.
“As they get older, it gets hard to keep some of them engaged in reading. So when they can enjoy reading, hopefully that carries over, and that’s what it’s all about.”
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