Each class now visits the library weekly, giving students dedicated time to read, explore new books, and choose titles to bring home. The space feels different from a classroom — calmer, more flexible, and centered around choice — and students quickly made it their own.
“They come in, they snuggle up, they get really excited, and they go around and pick the books they want,” Bodhuin said. “Some of the kids are reading the same book, and some are reading the same book as their teacher so they can chat about it — like a little book club.”
That excitement is intentional. Building a love of reading is not separate from the school’s literacy work — it is a critical part of it. In classrooms, students learn foundational reading skills through structured phonics and decodable texts aligned to the school’s literacy curriculum. The library experience builds on that foundation by giving students access to high-quality literature, high-interest nonfiction, and books they can bring home to read with their families.
“I wanted kids to have access to high-quality literature that they felt good about bringing home and reading with their parents, even if they can’t read it independently yet,” Bodhuin said.
The school has also worked to expand the types of books available to students, including more nonfiction and books that reflect the students and communities the school serves. Some students gravitate toward series and graphic novels, while others eagerly pick up nonfiction books about animals, space, and the natural world, sharing new facts they’ve learned with classmates and teachers.
Bodhuin often tells families that the most important homework they can do with their children is simple: read together.
“Read a book with them. I don’t care what book. I don’t care how many times you read it. Read it and talk about it,” she said. “There are just a billion studies that say the kids that are most successful are kids whose families read with them.”
And the research backs this up. Long-term studies show that children who develop a habit of reading early in life are more likely to achieve higher educational attainment, stronger cognitive skills, and even better health and employment outcomes later in life. (Sources: BookTrust Reading and Social Mobility Research; Institute for Fiscal Studies; University of Cambridge study on reading and cognitive development).
In other words, helping children fall in love with reading can change the trajectory of their lives.
You can see that belief in practice throughout the school. At AF Crown Heights Elementary, reading is never used as a punishment — it’s treated as something special.
“The one consequence that can never be ‘you have to sit and read a book,’” Bodhuin said. “Reading is a privilege. It is something you get to do because it is joyful and beautiful.”
The redesigned library helps make that idea real for students. It gives them a place where they can explore, discover new books, talk about stories with friends, and begin to see themselves as readers.
And over time, that matters. Because when students see reading as something joyful, something they choose, and something they share with their families, they don’t just become better readers — they become readers for life.
