Reading logs

Why the books are already listed

Most reading logs are a grid of empty rows, which is fine for a school record and useless as motivation. A child who can see the seven Harry Potter books laid out, three of them ticked, is looking at something they’re halfway through rather than a form to fill in.

That’s the entire idea. The list does the work, and finishing a series feels like finishing something. The colouring bookmarks pair with these rather well, since a child who has made their own bookmark tends to want something to use it in. Ours went up on the back of a bedroom door and the ticking off became the bit she looked forward to.

The bit worth insisting on

The star rating is the least useful part. Everyone gives everything five stars for the first month.

The “what I thought” box is where it gets interesting, and it gets more honest the moment they hit a book in the series they didn’t enjoy. That’s usually the first time a child says something genuinely critical about a book, and it’s worth more than a shelf of completed charts.

This isn’t the school one

Whatever your school sends home has to be signed and handed in, and it will keep doing that regardless. This is the one your child keeps because they want to, which is a different job and generally a better mood.

Print page one on its own if all you want is a tick list for the fridge. The pages behind it give each book its own space, which suits some children and irritates others.

For a series that’s still being written

Dog Man, Tom Gates and Diary of a Wimpy Kid all keep going, so the lists reflect what was published when the sheet was made. There are blank rows for whatever arrives next, and printing a fresh copy is easier than squeezing a title into a margin.

If they’re reading something else entirely

Use the blank one. Series name, author, what it’s about, and the titles filled in as they go. It works for anything, including the library habit of arriving home with book four of a series nobody has heard of.

When a book gets abandoned

Leave it on the log with a tick in the title column and a short note: “stopped at chapter three, too slow”, for example. A dropped book is useful information, and the log should show it rather than hide it. It also tells you something about what your child is ready for, which matters more than a finished list.

Reading together and ticking

If you read a book aloud, let your child do the tick once the last page is done. That small job makes the end of the book feel like theirs. For a book they read alone, they can tick it when they have finished and say what they thought of it in the notes box, even if the notes are only one word.

Starting a new series

Put the first title of a new series at the top of a blank page, and add the rest as they’re published or as your child discovers them. If a series is still being written, leave space at the bottom for the next book, and print a fresh copy when the list gets crowded. Children often want to read the books in order, so the list helps them see what comes next.

A note on these sheets

They’re unofficial, made independently, and not affiliated with, endorsed by or licensed by any author or publisher. They contain no characters, no logos and no artwork from the books. What they contain is a list of titles and somewhere for a child to record what they made of them.

If the problem is not the record but getting a book opened in the first place, reading with a reluctant child is the one to read.