By Bathroom Readers' Institute
The fact book that tells your child how long each piece is before they start it, so they can pick one they know they'll finish.
Where the Popsicle came from. Whether the Haunted Mansion at Disney is really haunted. The ten most dangerous snakes alive. What earwax is for and why you actually want it. What school lunch looks like in other countries. Nearly three hundred pages of short true things, mixed in with jokes, quizzes, and bloopers. It's also filed by length, not just by subject: short, medium, and long, each one marked on the page. So your child can see how long a piece is before deciding whether to read it.
Nothing else on a fact shelf tells your child how long a piece is before they commit to it, and for a child who won't read, that can be the thing that finally gets a book open. A lot of reluctant readers are put off less by the words than by not knowing whether they'll make it to the end. This lets them pick something they already know they can finish, short or medium or long, their call. So they finish it, then do it again, and the pieces they pick tend to get longer on their own. The other half of it is less high-minded and works just as well: the book is thoroughly gross, and a child who has never once picked a book off a shelf might pick the one about snot.