In an effort to learn the extent and variety of factors that influence students\u27 book selection, the study reported here was undertaken. The researchers also questioned students regarding what they liked to read about, what authors they liked, and books they had recently read and enjoyed. A total of 688 fifth through eighth grade students enrolled in public schools in two small cities in Nebraska and California responded to a questionnaire. Numbers of respondents from both sexes were fairly evenly distributed across four grades

Hawkins Wendelin, Karla

Zinck, R Ann

English

ScholarWorks at WMU

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy andLanguage ArtsVolume 23Issue 2 January 1983 Article 21-1-1983How Students Make Book ChoicesKarla Hawkins WendelinUniversity of TexasR Ann ZinckUniversity of the PacificFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizonsPart of the Education CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the SpecialEducation and Literacy Studies at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has beenaccepted for inclusion in Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy andLanguage Arts by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks at WMU. For moreinformation, please contact maira.bundza@wmich.edu.Recommended CitationHawkins Wendelin, K., & Zinck, R. A. (1983). How Students Make Book Choices. Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy andLanguage Arts, 23 (2). Retrieved from https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/vol23/iss2/2HOW STUDENTS MAKE BOOK CHOICES Karla Hawkins Wende/in UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS R. Ann Zinck UNIVERSITY OF THE PACIFIC. STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA An important goal of reading instruction is to bring students and books together in such a way that students will choose reading as a recreational activity. For students to become independent readers, they need to know how to choose and respond to literature. For teachers to develop situations in which students can respond to books and analyze their choices, they need to know what factors influence students' selection of books for personal reading. Literature regarding criteria that influence young people's book selection is limited. When Maxwell (1979) asked sixth grade students why they decided to read a particular book, she found kthat these factors were important: 1) recommendation of a friend, 2) the length of the book (they checked the number of pages), 3) the print, 4) the cover, 5) the title, 6) chapter titles, and 7) the content of the first page. Ross (1978) found similar con-siderations in her survey of middle school students, but they added the following reasons: 1) easy to read, 2) contemporary setting, 3) llE.in character of own age and sex, 4) a book they had heard of before, 5) paperback, 6) topic of personal interest, and 7) immediate action without "dull" introductory chapters. In an effort to learn the extent and variety of factors that influence students' book selection, the study reported here was undertaken. The researchers also questioned students regarding what they liked to read about, what authors they liked, and books they had recently read and enjoyed. A total of 688 fifth through eighth grade students enrolled in public schools in two sllE.ll cities in Nebraska and California responded to a questionnaire. Numbers of respondents from both sexes were fairly evenly distributed across four grades. Results of the Survey The following results are reported item by item from the question-naire: Item 1: Would you be more likely to read a book ... if a teacher recommended it to you? .. if a friend recommended it to you? A majority of the students (67/0) indicated that they relied more upon the friend's recommendation. Of the 31% who chose a teacher recorrmendation, half of them were in fifth grade. There rh-85 appeared to be a steady increase through the grades with regard to the influence of peer suggestion. Boys showed a slightly greater tendency to favor the recommendation by a teacher; whereas, girls were inclined toward peer recommendation. Item 2: Which would you be more likely to choose to read? .. a hardback book ... a paperback book. Paperbacks were preferred by a majority of the subjects (65%). Among the grades, eighth graders registered the highest preference for paperback books; fifth graders, the lowest. Girls (61%) favored paperbacks by a fairly wide margin compared to boys in the survey. Item 3: Have you ever read a book after seeing a movie or TV show based on it? The media appeared to have a substantial influence on choice of reading material with 77% of the subjects indicating a positive response. There was very little difference among the grades on this item. However, girls (5&%) responded "yes" slightly more frequently than boys. The strong positive response by the total group was reflected in the book titles listed in the final item on the survey. Item 4: Do you ever read a book more than once? A strong majority of the students (80%) answered positively. Fifth graders responded "yes" only slightly more often than other grades. Eighth graders had the greatest number of negative re-sponses. Girls (57%) indicated a few more rereadings than boys. Item 5: Do you ever buy books with your spending money? Fifty-eight percent of the subjects answered that they had purchased books with their spending money. There was little dif-ference among the grades with regard to this behavior. Girls (58%) exceeded boys somewhat in book purchasing. Item 6: Do you ever read more than one book by the same author? Name one or two of these authors. A large majority of the subjects (85%) responded positively. All four grades were very consistent in their responses to this item. Once again, girls edged the boys in positive responses. Students listed 186 different authors whose books they favored. A surrma.ry of these authors according to frequency of mention by the subjects appears in Table 1. Table 1 Authors Named in the Survey Judy Blume 207 E. B. White 16 Franklin Dixon 11 Beverly Cleary 92 C. S. Lewis 15 Wilson Rawls 10 Laura Ingalls Wilder 23 Agatha Christie 12 Carolyn Keene 8 S. E. Hinton 20 Alfred Hitchcock 12 Madeleine L' Engle 7 Charles Schultz 18 George Lucas 12 Ronald Dahl 7 Robert C. O'Brien 7 86-rh Item 7: Number in order from 1 to 6 how important the items be-low are to you when you choose a book to read ... thick-ness ... if book has pictures ... what it says on the first page of the book ... the size of print ... the picture on the cover ... what it says on the jacket or back cover. The subjects indicated the following as most important: "What it says on the book jacket or on the back cover" (53%), "how thick the book is" (15%), "what it says on the first page of the book" (12%), "the picture on the cover" (8%), "the size of the print" (7%), and "if the book has pictures" (5%). A similar pattern emerged in the ratings of those factors that were second most influential in the choice of reading material: "what it says on the first page" (25%), "how thick the book is" (2CJ%,) , "the picture on the cover" (18%), "what it says on the book jacket or on the back cover" (14%), "the size of the print" (12%), and "if the book has pictures" (1CJ%,). Item 8: Check the sentence that best describes you: ... I mostly read only books that I have to read because they are required by the teacher ... I check books out of the library to read at home in my spare time ... I have several books of my own at home that I enjoy reading in my spare time. Only 14% of the subjects responded that they read only required books. Of these responses, more than one-half were given by eighth graders. Boys (73%) also indicated this behavior by a wide margin over the girls. Forty-five percent of the students indicated that the library was the primary source of their reading material. There was very little difference among the grades on this item. Of the respondents who selected this category, the majority were girls (60%). Forty-one percent of the subjects selected the third statement. Fifth graders (35%) responded that they read personally owned books most frequently. More girls (55%) than boys indicated that this item was descriptive of their behavior. Item 9: What do you like to read about? "Mysteries" were listed substantially more than any other type of story, named by nearly one-third of the respondents. Other popular topics included: anirmls, humor / comedy, adventure, love stories, sports, science fiction, and "kids my age" /teenagers. "Fiction" as a type of book was cited often. There was also a rather wide representation of nonfiction topics listed by the subjects, including: ballet, jazz, roller skating, conservation, computers and electronics, crafts, cooking, marine biology, motor-cycles, and how-to-draw, among others. Item 10: List the titles of three books you have read lately or that have been read to you that you really liked. The subjects listed a total of 978 different book titles. A listing of titles named 12 times or more appears below: Table 2 Books Enjoyed by Fifth-Eighth Grade Students Where the Red Fern Grows 46 Star Wars 17 Forever 35 That Was Then, This is Now 35 Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret 33 A Wrinkle in Time 33 The Amityville Horror 26 "Little House" books 25 Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing 23 It's Not the End of the World 22 Peanuts books 18 rh-87 Hi Fella Blubber Charlotte's Web From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler Black Stallion books A Christmas Carol My Side of the Mountain The Outsiders The Empire Strikes Back 16 15 14 11+ 13 13 12 12 12 Among the other titles, media influence was apparent. Subject and title lists included "The Dukes of Hazzard," "The Incredible Hulk," "Mork and Mindy," "SuperITBIl," "The Love Bug," "Battlestar Gallactica," and "Star Trek," among others. Titles published in the adult market were also popular, including: Shogun, Wifey. Alien, Moomie Dearest, The Shining, and If Life Is a1lOWl ofCl1er-rleS," What Am I Doing in the Pits? Conclusions According to the responses of the subjects in the study re-ported here, there are apparently some fairly definite factors that fifth through eighth grade students consider when they are choosing books for personal reading. They rely more upon peer recommendation than teacher suggestion and tend to select paperback instead of hardback books. Movies and television seem to prompt students to read books, and they may buy books with their spending money. They have a strong tendency to reread books and to read more than one book by the same author. Factors such as the descrip-tion of a book on the book jacket or back cover and the content of the first page apparently weigh heavily in the decisions to read or not to read a book. The thickness of the book and the picture on the cover seem to influence the choice to a lesser degree, and the print size and number of illustrations are least important. Fifth through eighth grade students appear to have an extensive range of reading interests, both fiction and non-fiction. and choose from a wide variety of literature, written for both children and adults. Findings from a study such as this one offer implications for teachers who wish to develop recreational reading habits in and out of their classrooms. Students need to be provided with opportunities to share what they have been reading with others. These need not be fOnTal book reporting times. Instead, they can be brief moments of giving a summary statement and making a recom-mendation. In order to capitalize on the media influences, teachers might draw the attention of the students to a movie or 1V special based on a children's or young adult book. Copies of the adapted book could be made available in the classroom or school library. A discussion comparing or contrasting the book with the media presentation would be an excellent critical reading activity to follow the viewing and reading. Students themselves mi8ht write book jacket blurbs and synopses for back covers so they can learn 88-rh how useful such infonmtion can be in telling about a book. They should also be ffi3.de aware of various popular authors and their contributions. Further, continued exposure to the ever-growing body of nonfiction literature is vital as the interests of students change and their need for infonmtion expand~. REFERENCES Maxwell, R. The young critic. Ripples, 1979, 2, 5-7. Ross, P. A. Getting books into those empty hands. The Reading Teacher, 1978, 31, 397-399. 

How Students Make Book Choices

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and 
Language Arts 
Volume 23 
Issue 2 January 1983 Article 2 
1-1-1983 
How Students Make Book Choices 
Karla Hawkins Wendelin 
University of Texas 
R Ann Zinck 
University of the Pacific 
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons 
 Part of the Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Hawkins Wendelin, K., & Zinck, R. A. (1983). How Students Make Book Choices. Reading Horizons: A 
Journal of Literacy and Language Arts, 23 (2). Retrieved from https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/
reading_horizons/vol23/iss2/2 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by 
the Special Education and Literacy Studies at 
ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion 
in Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language 
Arts by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks at WMU. 
For more information, please contact wmu-
scholarworks@wmich.edu. 
HOW STUDENTS MAKE 
BOOK CHOICES 
Karla Hawkins Wende/in 
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS 
R. Ann Zinck 
UNIVERSITY OF THE PACIFIC. STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA 
An important goal of reading instruction is to bring students 
and books together in such a way that students will choose reading 
as a recreational activity. For students to become independent 
readers, they need to know how to choose and respond to literature. 
For teachers to develop situations in which students can respond 
to books and analyze their choices, they need to know what factors 
influence students' selection of books for personal reading. 
Literature regarding criteria that influence young people's 
book selection is limited. When Maxwell (1979) asked sixth grade 
students why they decided to read a particular book, she found 
kthat these factors were important: 1) recommendation of a friend, 
2) the length of the book (they checked the number of pages), 
3) the print, 4) the cover, 5) the title, 6) chapter titles, and 
7) the content of the first page. Ross (1978) found similar con-
siderations in her survey of middle school students, but they 
added the following reasons: 1) easy to read, 2) contemporary 
setting, 3) llE.in character of own age and sex, 4) a book they 
had heard of before, 5) paperback, 6) topic of personal interest, 
and 7) immediate action without "dull" introductory chapters. 
In an effort to learn the extent and variety of factors that 
influence students' book selection, the study reported here was 
undertaken. The researchers also questioned students regarding 
what they liked to read about, what authors they liked, and books 
they had recently read and enjoyed. 
A total of 688 fifth through eighth grade students enrolled 
in public schools in two sllE.ll cities in Nebraska and California 
responded to a questionnaire. Numbers of respondents from both 
sexes were fairly evenly distributed across four grades. 
Results of the Survey 
The following results are reported item by item from the question-
naire: 
Item 1: Would you be more likely to read a book ... if a teacher 
recommended it to you? .. if a friend recommended 
it to you? 
A majority of the students (67/0) indicated that they relied 
more upon the friend's recommendation. Of the 31% who chose a 
teacher recorrmendation, half of them were in fifth grade. There 
rh-85 
appeared to be a steady increase through the grades with regard 
to the influence of peer suggestion. Boys showed a slightly greater 
tendency to favor the recommendation by a teacher; whereas, girls 
were inclined toward peer recommendation. 
Item 2: Which would you be more likely to choose to read? .. 
a hardback book ... a paperback book. 
Paperbacks were preferred by a majority of the subjects (65%). 
Among the grades, eighth graders registered the highest preference 
for paperback books; fifth graders, the lowest. Girls (61%) favored 
paperbacks by a fairly wide margin compared to boys in the survey. 
Item 3: Have you ever read a book after seeing a movie or 
TV show based on it? 
The media appeared to have a substantial influence on choice 
of reading material with 77% of the subjects indicating a positive 
response. There was very little difference among the grades on 
this item. However, girls (5&%) responded "yes" slightly more 
frequently than boys. The strong positive response by the total 
group was reflected in the book titles listed in the final item 
on the survey. 
Item 4: Do you ever read a book more than once? 
A strong majority of the students (80%) answered positively. 
Fifth graders responded "yes" only slightly more often than other 
grades. Eighth graders had the greatest number of negative re-
sponses. Girls (57%) indicated a few more rereadings than boys. 
Item 5: Do you ever buy books with your spending money? 
Fifty-eight percent of the subjects answered that they had 
purchased books with their spending money. There was little dif-
ference among the grades with regard to this behavior. Girls (58%) 
exceeded boys somewhat in book purchasing. 
Item 6: Do you ever read more than one book by the same 
author? Name one or two of these authors. 
A large majority of the subjects (85%) responded positively. 
All four grades were very consistent in their responses to this 
item. Once again, girls edged the boys in positive responses. 
Students listed 186 different authors whose books they favored. 
A surrma.ry of these authors according to frequency of mention by 
the subjects appears in Table 1. 
Table 1 
Authors Named in the Survey 
Judy Blume 207 E. B. White 16 Franklin Dixon 11 
Beverly Cleary 92 C. S. Lewis 15 Wilson Rawls 10 
Laura Ingalls Wilder 23 Agatha Christie 12 Carolyn Keene 8 
S. E. Hinton 20 Alfred Hitchcock 12 Madeleine L' Engle 7 
Charles Schultz 18 George Lucas 12 Ronald Dahl 7 
Robert C. O'Brien 7 
86-rh 
Item 7: Number in order from 1 to 6 how important the items be-
low are to you when you choose a book to read ... thick-
ness ... if book has pictures ... what it says on the first 
page of the book ... the size of print ... the picture on 
the cover ... what it says on the jacket or back cover. 
The subjects indicated the following as most important: "What 
it says on the book jacket or on the back cover" (53%), "how thick 
the book is" (15%), "what it says on the first page of the book" 
(12%), "the picture on the cover" (8%), "the size of the print" 
(7%), and "if the book has pictures" (5%). A similar pattern 
emerged in the ratings of those factors that were second most 
influential in the choice of reading material: "what it says on 
the first page" (25%), "how thick the book is" (2CJ%,) , "the picture 
on the cover" (18%), "what it says on the book jacket or on the 
back cover" (14%), "the size of the print" (12%), and "if the 
book has pictures" (1CJ%,). 
Item 8: Check the sentence that best describes you: ... I 
mostly read only books that I have to read because 
they are required by the teacher ... I check books 
out of the library to read at home in my spare time ... 
I have several books of my own at home that I enjoy 
reading in my spare time. 
Only 14% of the subjects responded that they read only required 
books. Of these responses, more than one-half were given by eighth 
graders. Boys (73%) also indicated this behavior by a wide margin 
over the girls. Forty-five percent of the students indicated that 
the library was the primary source of their reading material. 
There was very little difference among the grades on this item. 
Of the respondents who selected this category, the majority were 
girls (60%). Forty-one percent of the subjects selected the third 
statement. Fifth graders (35%) responded that they read personally 
owned books most frequently. More girls (55%) than boys indicated 
that this item was descriptive of their behavior. 
Item 9: What do you like to read about? 
"Mysteries" were listed substantially more than any other 
type of story, named by nearly one-third of the respondents. Other 
popular topics included: anirmls, humor / comedy, adventure, love 
stories, sports, science fiction, and "kids my age" /teenagers. 
"Fiction" as a type of book was cited often. There was also a 
rather wide representation of nonfiction topics listed by the 
subjects, including: ballet, jazz, roller skating, conservation, 
computers and electronics, crafts, cooking, marine biology, motor-
cycles, and how-to-draw, among others. 
Item 10: List the titles of three books you have read lately 
or that have been read to you that you really liked. 
The subjects listed a total of 978 different book titles. 
A listing of titles named 12 times or more appears below: 
Table 2 
Books Enjoyed by Fifth-Eighth Grade Students 
Where the Red Fern Grows 46 Star Wars 17 
Forever 35 
That Was Then, This is Now 35 
Are You There, God? 
It's Me, Margaret 33 
A Wrinkle in Time 33 
The Amityville Horror 26 
"Little House" books 25 
Tales of a Fourth Grade 
Nothing 23 
It's Not the End of the 
World 22 
Peanuts books 18 
rh-87 
Hi Fella 
Blubber 
Charlotte's Web 
From the Mixed-Up Files of 
Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler 
Black Stallion books 
A Christmas Carol 
My Side of the Mountain 
The Outsiders 
The Empire Strikes Back 
16 
15 
14 
11+ 
13 
13 
12 
12 
12 
Among the other titles, media influence was apparent. Subject 
and title lists included "The Dukes of Hazzard," "The Incredible 
Hulk," "Mork and Mindy," "SuperITBIl," "The Love Bug," "Battlestar 
Gallactica," and "Star Trek," among others. Titles published in 
the adult market were also popular, including: Shogun, Wifey. 
Alien, Moomie Dearest, The Shining, and If Life Is a1lOWl ofCl1er-
rleS," What Am I Doing in the Pits? 
Conclusions 
According to the responses of the subjects in the study re-
ported here, there are apparently some fairly definite factors 
that fifth through eighth grade students consider when they are 
choosing books for personal reading. They rely more upon peer 
recommendation than teacher suggestion and tend to select paperback 
instead of hardback books. Movies and television seem to prompt 
students to read books, and they may buy books with their spending 
money. They have a strong tendency to reread books and to read 
more than one book by the same author. Factors such as the descrip-
tion of a book on the book jacket or back cover and the content 
of the first page apparently weigh heavily in the decisions to 
read or not to read a book. The thickness of the book and the 
picture on the cover seem to influence the choice to a lesser 
degree, and the print size and number of illustrations are least 
important. Fifth through eighth grade students appear to have 
an extensive range of reading interests, both fiction and non-
fiction. and choose from a wide variety of literature, written 
for both children and adults. 
Findings from a study such as this one offer implications 
for teachers who wish to develop recreational reading habits in 
and out of their classrooms. Students need to be provided with 
opportunities to share what they have been reading with others. 
These need not be fOnTal book reporting times. Instead, they can 
be brief moments of giving a summary statement and making a recom-
mendation. In order to capitalize on the media influences, teachers 
might draw the attention of the students to a movie or 1V special 
based on a children's or young adult book. Copies of the adapted 
book could be made available in the classroom or school library. 
A discussion comparing or contrasting the book with the media 
presentation would be an excellent critical reading activity to 
follow the viewing and reading. Students themselves mi8ht write 
book jacket blurbs and synopses for back covers so they can learn 
88-rh 
how useful such infonmtion can be in telling about a book. They 
should also be ffi3.de aware of various popular authors and their 
contributions. Further, continued exposure to the ever-growing 
body of nonfiction literature is vital as the interests of students 
change and their need for infonmtion expand~. 
REFERENCES 
Maxwell, R. The young critic. Ripples, 1979, 2, 5-7. 
Ross, P. A. Getting books into those empty hands. The Reading 
Teacher, 1978, 31, 397-399. 


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