I stumbled upon this and am especially happy to comment here--- both as a mom of kids who love reading because of the 100 Book Challenge and, in the spirit of full disclosure, I also used this program as a classroom teacher and do training for this program for other teachers and administrators. I hope no one minds that I’m chiming in!
The main goal of 100 Book Challenge is not just to read X number of books. It’s to make sure that students establish the routines (both at school and at home) to become avid competent readers--- for life. One of the best ways to do this is to make sure that students log enough time reading independently. It’s more about the time spent reading (getting practice) than the number of books you read. The program gives students the power of choice—in choosing any books they want to read, provided those books are at his or her “just right” independent reading level. If books are too hard, kids get frustrated. It may not seem obvious to most parents, but it’s actually better for children who are struggling with reading to spend more time reading independently (without any help) from books that are a bit too easy for them, than if they are too hard. Many research studies have been done that show that the combination of “choice” and “appropriate reading level” is what dramatically increases the rate of reading acquisition. American Reading Company does sell books into schools—they are leveled collections that pull from over 220 publishers, so schools are not getting books from just one big company. We also provide training for teachers on how to work with children on the standards required by each state for reading. I have since become a reading specialist yet truly believe that I learned to teach reading by doing the 100 Book Challenge. I’m obviously biased, but I think it’s an amazing program and have seen remarkable results in classrooms across the country as well as with my own children.
If you are curious about the research about student choice, this was an interesting article in the New York Times from a few weeks ago
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/books/30reading.html I hope that helps!
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