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Read Around the World: Children’s Reading Challenge
We are so excited to invite you and your kids to join our children’s reading challenge – Read Around the World. Following the popularity of our Book Voyage reading challenge for adults, we designed our Kid’s Around the World Reading Challenge with families in mind! While we initially launched this as a kid’s summer reading challenge, we know that many teachers and librarians enjoy using it throughout the school year. There’s no wrong time to read around the world.
Read Around the World Challenge for Kids –
How It Works
Read a Book From Each Continent
Give kids a virtual passport and encourage them to travel to all seven continents through the pages of books!
For each continent, you’ll find links to recommended book lists later in this post.
From the Amazon rainforest to the savannas of Africa, and from the Great Wall of China to the outback of Australia, we know your kids will love exploring the world while learning about geography and other cultures. Reading around the world is not only a fun adventure – when used over the summer, it will also keep your kids’ reading skills sharp and help prevent the dreaded summer slide!
The Read Around the World challenge is completely free, and it’s as simple as reading seven books, one set on each of the seven different continents. But we suspect your kids won’t want to stop there. Once they start reading about other countries and cultures, they are likely to have lots of questions, and the best way to answer those questions is with more books. And that’s what raising a reader is all about!
Free Printable World Map Coloring Page
Download our free, hand-illustrated printable world map coloring page by adding your email address in the teal box below this paragraph. The map has space around the edges for your kids to record the titles of the books they read as they travel the world.
Read Around the World Book Lists
for Kids & Tweens
The lists of kids’ books for each continent are divided into sections, including picture books or younger children, early chapter books for new readers, and middle-grade books for more advanced readers. You’ll also find recommended age ranges for every book at the end of each book description.
Tips for Picking Books Your Kids Will Love
This reading challenge is easy to customize to your kid’s personal interests. If you have a kiddo who loves sports, for example, encourage them to read books about different sports or athletic competitions around the world; or for an animal-loving kiddo, explore the different animals that are unique to each continent.
Young readers who like books in a series may gravitate toward options like The Magic Treehouse or Greetings from Around the World because both series include books set all across the globe. Older kids and tweens might enjoy reading biographies of influential people from various countries, and the Who Is / Who Was series is a good starting point. Our recommended book lists for each continent include all of these, and much, much more.
We encourage you to start by browsing your kiddo’s bookshelf with them to look for their own books that might fit the challenge, and your local library is, of course, another great resource if you need a new book!
Summer Reading –
How to Avoid the Summer Slide
Summer reading is so important to help kids avoid the summer slide. What is the summer slide, you ask? According to research, kids who don’t read enough enter the next school year at a lower reading level than when they completed the prior grade in the spring.
There is compelling data that suggests that reading even 20 minutes a day not only prevents the summer slide, it also helps kids grow academically. And reading together is also shown to strengthen family relationships!
If you have a reluctant reader, it can be extra challenging to get them to read during the summer when they are away from school. On the other hand, if you have a voracious young reader, they can get bored quickly during the summer months. We’ve designed the Read Around the World summer reading challenge to keep both groups of kids excited about books all summer long!
We hope your whole family enjoys this challenge! Happy reading!
