Goodreads is Good for Kids

My kids, like many that I know, are voracious readers at the ages of 3 and 1. They love for me to read them books. They love going to visit the library to pick out a large batch of new reading material. I love choosing special books to add to their home library. All of the books we own are very worn just because they spend so much time looking at them!

I know these books won't last forever and my kids will grow up. I thought it would be a cool idea to use the website Goodreads to keep a record of all of the books that we've read.

Goodreads is a website for readers that includes a huge database of book information along with the ability to create reading lists to share. You can choose the books you want to read in the future, rate books you have already read, and write reviews to help others choose books to read. The site is designed more for adults, but most children's books are included in the database. I have an account (they're free) just for my children so that I can include only the books that they have read.



As I add books to my virtual "shelf" in Goodreads, I have the option to rate and review them, as well as to add personal notes about the books. When a book is a particular favorite of my son, I write a little note about it, so that when he's older he'll be able to see what he liked as a young child.

I love using the Goodreads app on my smart phone. It is also free and it allows me to scan the ISBN on the back of our books or library books with my phone's camera to quickly enter the book into our online collection. It's so satisfying to input a whole stack of library books this way. My children think it's amazing to see the cover of the book pop up on the phone's screen after I scan the ISBN barcode.

I imagine that as my kids grow older, I'll create a separate account for my daughter and then hand over the maintenance of the accounts to them. It's so fun having a record of everything they've read and Goodreads makes it so easy to do it. I highly recommend it!