Beyond the Book Report: 5 Reading Activities to Pair with Any Book

Looking for ways to make reading more interactive? Traditional book reports can feel outdated, but there are plenty of creative reading activities to deepen comprehension,  build classroom reading culture, and keep students excited about reading. This article offers five simple reading activities that can be paired with any book and are designed to spark imagination and help students share what they’ve learned in fun and meaningful ways. 

Simple Reading Activities for Any Book 

These five low-prep reading activities will work with any text from picture books to nonfiction passages to novels. Whether the whole class is reading the same book or students have selected individual titles, completing these reading activities will help all your students synthesize what they read in fun and meaningful ways. 

Write a Book Review

From restaurant meals to online shopping, sharing opinions and seeing what others recommend before making a choice is a way of life today. So why not let students do the same by writing, and reading, a book review?

Explain to students that a book review allows others to determine if they want to read the whole book by reading just a few sentences. Share several examples of book reviews from popular sites using books that your students would recognize. Identify key parts of a book review, including the rater’s name, a rating system (e.g., stars), a one-phrase or sentence review summary, and a short paragraph that includes whether or not the book is recommended. 

Your students’ completed book reviews can be left inside the front cover of books or in the classroom library to aid students when self-selecting books.

You’ll find several book review template options for students in grades PreK to 6 (and lots of other tools to support reading) in the My Book Adventures Passport, part of Book Adventures: Classroom Library. Or, you can download and share this general option with your students. 

Design a New Book Cover

Though the saying goes, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” readers do. A book cover also gives the reader an immediate sense about the kind of reading experience they’re about to have. Covers help the reader anticipate the book: What is this book about? Will it be serious? Can I expect to laugh? The cover of a book can also determine if the book even gets picked up from the shelf.

Gather several examples of different styles of book covers from various genres from your classroom or library. Ask students to predict the theme, topic, and tone of each book based on the book cover design. Engage in a discussion about what elements are on the covers of various genres of books (like the title and author and illustrator names). 

Then have students create their own cover design for a book they have read. Ask students to reflect on what they would like to include from their book. Provide a template for just the front cover, or a template that will wrap the front, spine, and back cover. Display student-designed book covers in the classroom or attach them to the books in the classroom library with a temporary clip or wrap. 

Compose an Alternate Ending (Fiction)

Authors make the final call on how a story ends—but your students can reimagine it! Have students consider an alternate ending to a book they read.

Read a story that is unfamiliar to students; but stop before revealing the ending. Provide time for students to write or illustrate an ending they think best finishes the story. Share alternate endings as a group, then decide whether to read the published ending. This is one of many simple reading activities that give students creative control and encourage critical thinking.

Create a Trailer

How do you get excited about a movie? By watching the trailer! Just like movie trailers spark excitement, a book trailer can hook new readers.

Show students a few popular movie trailers as inspiration. Discuss why trailers are so effective in whetting the viewer’s appetite for the movie. Have students create a “book trailer” for the book they read with the goal of getting others excited about picking up the book. Have students record their own short video promoting their book, or perform it live for classmates.

Be a Visual Interpreter (Nonfiction)

A picture can tell a thousand words, and images are a powerful way to summarize text. Invite students to summarize a book they read with an image.

Choose whether students will summarize a whole book, a chapter, or even a single paragraph. Have them create or find an image (drawn, digital, or collage) that captures the key ideas. The key is then having students explain how their image represents what they read in the text. This activity is also a helpful way for teachers to assess students’ reading comprehension while inviting creativity.  

Making the Most of Reading Activities 

By incorporating simple reading activities like book reviews, trailers, and visual interpretation you'll help your students engage more fully with texts while making the reading process fun and memorable. Interactive reading activities breathe new life into the way students respond to books. 

Instead of relying on traditional reports, these five book reading activities encourage creativity, collaboration, and deeper comprehension. Whether at home or in the classroom, these activities ensure that reading remains an adventure worth sharing. Discover even more ways to build classroom reading culture and access more engaging reading activities, like the My Book Adventures Passport, in Book Adventures: Classroom Library.