Over the years, I’ve attended lots of conferences that discussed reading in the classroom. One of the concepts that always resonated with me is “How do we inspire students who do not like to read?” I spent a lot of time in my own classroom diving into ideas that would benefit all my students, but especially those who struggled to enjoy reading.
One of the key points made by expert educators was to have a wide variety of books within the classroom that would meet the interests of all students. In order to be successful in building my own classroom library, I would purchase sets of books that covered a wide range of genres, which would include non-fiction and fiction. When I taught 5th grade, I made sure I had picture books, graphic novels, comic books and encyclopedias. While some of those things might not be the norm for a classroom, my philosophy became, "It doesn't matter what they are reading as long as they are reading."
Finding quality resources for reading is so important. That's why I love the books from Capstone Publishing. They offer a broad range of topics and the photography is always a hit with students. These Awesome African Animal Books are one of my favorite. The pictures are vibrant and the content is detailed and engaging. They would be a wonderful addition to any classroom. 
As with many books in my own classroom, I would find activities and different ways to get students excited about a particular series I had purchased. With this set, we came up with a "mad-lib" so-to-speak on African animals, with the hope that a fun activity might inspire your students to pick up a book and read. 
We also created a craft activity that could be used as a research project and assessment within your classroom. 
I truly hope these tools will help you become inspired and will continue to motivate and challenge your students to read. You can find additional Capstone leveled books here.
