The 2019-2020 #PictYourBooks Challenge

Welcome back to Help Readers Love Reading! It’s the beginning of another school year, and once again I’m running a weekly program to encourage reading, motivate readers, and ultimately, share books across a large and diverse community. It is called #PictYourBooks.

Last year we did the #PBIDchallenge, and this year #PictYourBooks will work the same way. Every Monday a new challenge (or question) will be posted here on HelpReadersLoveReading.com. Participants* need to find a book that answers the challenge, snap a picture of it, and send it to me. Submissions should include the image and the week number. Participants may also share who the answer is from and a short explanation about how the book answers the challenge.

Let’s give it a try.

Challenge: Share a book where a character enters a different world.

Week 1 from Mr. Wilhorn's class.

Week 1 from Mrs. Garcia's class. Emily and Navin enter Alledia.

In each of these examples, it's pretty clear that Max and Emily and Navin enter different worlds. In addition, and with some creative thinking, books like The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats or Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis could be included too. 

Week 1 from Mr. Wilhorn's class. Peter enters a winter wonderland!

Week 1 from Mrs. Garcia's class. When Bud hears the Dusky Devastators
of the Depression play for the first time it's like he's in another world.

Weekly challenges are designed to have multiple answers across grade levels, interests, and genres. No two readers are the same, just like no two teachers or classrooms are the same, but all readers can draw from the books in their own personal experience to answer the challenges. Teachers and students from across grade levels can participate!

There are three ways to submit a response. Snap a picture of your book and:

• text it to ‪(715) 903-6455‬ 
• email it to PictYourBooks@gmail.com 
• respond to @HelpReaders on Twitter

Each week I’ll post a weekly wrap-up video to share all the images received for each week’s challenge and publish a list of all the titles submitted for each challenge.

So … #PictYourBooks. Picture … Books. Picture Your Books. Pick Your Books. No matter how you read it, in the end, sharing a book with me during #PictYourBooks is sharing a book with all of us.

And I, for one, can’t wait to see what everyone is reading.

*This activity is designed for teachers, parents, and other grown-ups who work with children in classrooms, small groups, or one-on-one. Kids are not expected nor encouraged to participate independently. No personal information is requested or collected. Teachers may choose to share a general name (Mrs. Garcia’s class), but it is not required. The #PictYourBooks email and phone number were created specifically for this activity and are not my personal contacts.