About

Bookelicious is not only a great place to find new reads and get excited about books, it’s also founded with a strong and focused aim based on solid research and reports.

Two-thirds of fourth graders in the U.S. are reading below grade level.1 Since the educational focus shifts in fourth grade (from learning to read to reading to learn) children who are not proficient readers by fourth grade will struggle with the curriculum. As they advance from grade to grade, these struggling readers will fall even further behind their peers and are four times more likely to leave high school without a diploma.2

Why are so many children reading below grade level? At least in part because they are spending less time reading and more time in front of television and computer screens than ever before.3 Children average more than six hours of recreational screen time each day but only 25 minutes reading books.4

More time reading books increases vocabulary, fluency and comprehension.5 But how do we motivate children to read more? Bookelicious was designed to tackle this challenge by providing easy access to great books that match each child’s interests, age and reading ability.

Decades of research have identified three key components of reading motivation: high-interest books, well-suited to a child’s reading skill, and personally chosen by the reader from a wide selection of relevant titles.

Yet limited time, resources, and conflicting business models have historically constrained both educators and businesses from leveraging all three components to help children find the right books. Bookelicious was specifically designed to make finding the right books easy and fun by incorporating all three components of reading motivation into a captivating online experience.

Bookelicious offers a unique solution that incorporates all three key levers, plus the expert knowledge of educators and reviewers, to promote successful, motivated reading.

We deliver:

  • Personal relevance by recommending high-interest books on topics kids are excited about. Is a child interested in dinosaurs or magic? Superheroes or baseball?  Children who find reading materials interesting are more motivated to read, and read with greater comprehension. 6
  • Leveling by integrating established leveling systems to recommend books that are neither too hard (making them frustrating and intimidating) nor too easy (affording too few learning opportunities). Motivation comes from reading with accuracy, fluency and comprehension.7
  • Choice by offering many books that satisfy a reader’s level and interests. Offering students a choice increases their time spent reading and their sense of being “in charge.” 8
  • High-quality books. Teachers and librarians comprise an expert network that guides our recommendations, as well as user-generated popularity ratings.

Our first product is this website that matches high-interest (topic-specific), high-quality, age-appropriate books at the right level of difficulty for each reader. The site makes the recommended books easily accessible by offering them for sale, and linking to WorldCat to enable users to access books through their local libraries. Users can interact with the site by creating and sharing their own Bookmoji, reading/commenting on posts from our curators, providing user ratings and reviews, creating a book wish list, utilizing a customized reading log that can be shared with teachers and parents, and accessing the Bookelicious blog.

The Bookelicious site is designed for:

  • Children to quickly and easily find books they will enjoy reading and sharing with their peers;
  • Parents to identify interesting, high-quality books that match their children’s reading abilities, and to collaborate more effectively with teachers;
  • Teachers to find engaging books that match their students’ abilities and interests from resources beyond their individual classroom libraries and enrich their curriculum; and
  • Librarians to improve their collections and better deploy books among students and teachers.

To ensure the online safety of the children using our site, Bookelicious.com is listed by the kidSAFE Seal Program.  The kidSAFE Seal Program is an independent safety certification service and seal-of-approval program designed exclusively for children-friendly websites and technologies, including online game sites, educational services, virtual worlds, social networks, mobile apps, tablet devices, connected toys, and other similar online and interactive services.  Click on the seal or go to www.kidsafeseal.com for more information.

Bookelicious.com is listed by the kidSAFE Seal Program.

1 The Condition of Education 2013, http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2013/2013037.pdf, and Early Reading Proficiency in the United States

2 Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters, a Kids Count Special Report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation 2010); Early Warning Confirmed, a Research Update on Third Grade Learning (2013).

3 National Endowment for the Arts (2007), To Read or Not to Read, A Question of National Consequence, Research Report #47, pp. 7-10. Less than one-third of 13-year-olds are daily readers, a 14% decline from 20 years earlier. Among 17-year-olds, nonreaders doubled from 9% to 19%.

4 Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds, A Kaiser Family Foundation Study (2010).

5 Anderson, R., Wilson, P., & Fielding, L. (1988), Growth in reading and how children spend their time outside of school, Reading Research Quarterly, 23(3) 285-303; Cunningham, A.E., and Stanovich, K.E. (2001), What Reading Does for the Mind, Journal of Direct Instruction, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 137″149; and Moss, B., and Young, T. (2010), Creating Lifelong Readers through Independent Reading, International Reading Association, p. 9, et. seq.

6 Morrow, L., and Young, J. (1997), Parent, Teacher, and Child Participation in a Collaborative Family Literacy Program: The Effects of Attitude, Motivation, and Literacy Achievement, Journal of Educational Psychology, 89(4), 736-742.

7 Allington, R. (2009), What Really Matters in Response to Intervention: Research Based Designs, Allyn & Bacon, p. 51.

8 McRae, A. and Guthrie, J. (2008), Teacher Practices that Impact Reading Motivation, LD Online, Article No. 35746.