>how do you find books they'd be interested in? Like, that's the goal! You can't just assume the solution.

What a strange question?

If they are interested in fantasy movies give them a fantasy book. If they're interested in mystery, the same. If they're interested in Dinosaurs, the same. How is this some great challenge? The things you like to read about are the same things you already like... Are you implying you know nothing about your daughter?

Agree it seems odd. One thing the children in my life are NOT lacking is random interests. Sports books are a great avenue and often highly accessible for younger readers. Pretty much any hobby/niche interest has books that are suitable. Kid likes animals? Give them 'The Soul of an Octopus'. Kid likes scifi movies? Give em 'Childhood's End'. Its really not a challenge when you know them well.

> I've tried a lot of different things to up the amount of time she spends reading... she's more willing to invest in graphic novels than prose novels

If you haven't yet, push out beyond fiction. In my experience, libraries have a really divergent collection of large, illustrated volumes.

When I was 5-10 I read comic strip books - but also encyclopedias. Specifically World Book; Britannica was too dry.

note: I've no complaint with graphic novels. Sons 1, 2 & 5 were big into them. One is writing fiction. Two was into physics and anime, is now into psychology and early Japanese film making. Five performs+crafts his own music videos.

You've probably already seen these, but just in case:

https://www.mangaclassics.com

These are... not books.

I'm not saying they are not worthy of consumption or anything like that, but A: I doubt very many teachers would accept a "book report" written about a graphic novel and B: consuming graphic novels, by their nature, is not purely reading. Your brain/imagination has far less work to do, as you don't have to mentally picture the scenes/people/actions, they are right there for you to look at.

    These are... not books.
    you don't have to mentally picture the scenes/people/actions

I sort of see what you're saying, even if I don't agree with it. I think the really neat thing about these, are that they present _classic stories_ in a way that is more appealing, and more easily digestible, to kids who might never have considered them otherwise.

I remember when I was in middle school, my English teacher had a box in the corner of comic book adaptations of about a dozen "classic" stories. Several were stories by Poe, and similar 1800s-era classics. (Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, etc.) I devoured them (despite loving reading "regular" books too). I've forgotten most of the plots, but remember having enjoyed reading them. Some of them, I've never read the originals, but for others I had already read (or subsequently read) the more-detailed originals. (Anything Sherlock Holmes, at the time, was something I enjoyed.)

Reading these stories as a manga makes you lose out on a lot of details, but probably makes it a lot easier to digest some things. Pride and Prejudice, for example, has pages of details of peoples' social lives, and the complex interactions of several younger and older women, along with descriptions of gardens and houses, and I know that I definitely had trouble keeping track of who all the ancillary characters were. Having visual representations of these characters might make it easier to track that. You lose out on the richness of Austen's prose, but you keep the core character developments, relationships, and emotional interactions that form the basis of the stories.

That makes a while since I've read physical books, but the great things I liked when I was a child was books with illustrations. Not the one with a picture every two pages, but one that tries to paint the atmosphere of the books. For short fictions (150 pages), I'm OK with the cover, but for anything longer a few full pages pictures kinda kept me in. It anchored me in the story.

I'd enjoyed The Malazan Book of the Fallen more if I had this edition: https://subterraneanpress.com/erikson-gotm/

Picture books have been around from the very beginning. I'd say that the modern graphic novel is just the result of various gradual innovations, one of the important ones being that of embedding text - speech, thoughts, onomatopoeic description - inside the pictures rather than alongside them, which improves the flow of the story, and which helps prevent the reader from becoming focused on either the pictures or text to the exclusion of the other.

I'd posit that anyone whose imagination conjures up mental pictures from a purely written book would be incapable of not doing so with a graphic novel. One's brain could have less to do, true... yet it doesn't choose the easy path. In my personal experience, the scenes of a good story grow and become more detailed in my imagination, regardless of whether they are depicted in prose or picture.

One thing I love about written language is that can be used in so many ways; the vast majority of reading isn't 'purely' reading for me, but associated with other activities - encyclopaedias are reading interspersed with skimming, possibly in order to inform another task such as writing, graphic novels are the appreciation of visual art in a narrative form supported by text, and then there's the entirely practical way in which being able to read "wet paint" helps me from getting myself into a sticky situation.

I have kids, my older is 11 and reads almost whenever she can. She loves to read herself to sleep at night.

We've taken her to the library since she was a baby where we'd find new baby books to read to her. Over time, we stopped picking out books for her and let her wander the isles, picking whatever seemed interesting to her. She usually chooses a wide assortment of things from comics to YA fiction.

My son is much more interested in screens, but he still reads a lot. Whenever we restrict the screens his next default is to read.

We read a lot to both of them as infants & toddlers. We have a couple bookshelves worth of books in the house, but honestly they spend almost their whole reading time on new-to-them library books. We've hit the library checkout limit pretty much every time we go! And it's no waste - every book is returned read.

> if you have a kid who doesn't have an existing strong reading habit, how do you find books they'd be interested in?

I'd start by taking them to the library and letting them explore. Chances are they'll find something that interests them!

I have kids and it seems like fine advice. You find books they'd be interested in by knowing about their hobbies, interests, and personality, and finding books that match that in some manner, and then pitching it to them, regardless of whether it is age appropriate or not.

Of course it is hard to do - at least, harder to do than saying "I have a 5 year old, and this book says it is for 5 year olds, so I will have them read it".

I do. I've given my son who's an avid swimmer a non-fiction book about a group training to try and make the Olympics. I've given my nephew interested in space 'The Right Stuff'. Both devoured the books and went off on their own reading journeys from there.

Try the Fablehaven series for her.

For the the mid-teens, Mistborn series.

That was about the age when my daughter got heavily into the Warriors series.