2025 Annual Reading Challenge for Kids and Teens
MEMBERS: You may access the reading challenge throughout 2025. You also have access to our reading challenge forum !
Not a Member? Be sure to sign-up/download your materials before January 31, 2025. Find out more about membership here.
The 2025 Reading Challenge for Kids and Teens is here!
WHY DO A READING CHALLENGE?
- read more intentionally and stretch yourself as a reader
- diversify your reading (or your child's)
WHAT SETS THE REDEEMED READER READING CHALLENGE APART?
- kid-friendly: all categories can be "checked off" with picture books, middle grades books, young adult books, or adult books
- all books count: books for school, picture books, graphic novels, fiction/nonfiction, read alouds, and more
- Christian categories (such as a book about missions) alongside categories like realistic fiction or mystery
- lots of variety in genre, book length, publication date, and more
Do any of these sound familiar?
- Your 13 year old only wants to read fantasy. If you see another book cover with a dragon on it, you’re going to cut up her library card.
- You see reading challenges popping up everywhere, but your kids are all pre-readers. Picture books are your life right now… so a reading challenge will have to wait.
- Your second grade class is doing so well with their new reading skills! But how to encourage them to build that critical reading fluency across a wide variety of books?
- You want to challenge your middle school students to read broadly, but how to go about that?
- Your teenager is into sports. Why read?
- Your family loves audiobooks, but you want to diversify your read alouds a bit. Historical fiction is great, but what about listening to a nonfiction title?
If any of those resonate with you, you need the Redeemed Reader annual reading challenge!
What's New for 2025?
This is our tenth year to issue an annual reading challenge. Wow! Our 2025 Reading Challenge for Kids and Teens is the same as last year's, for the first time ever.
We HAVE, however, added an updated version of our Children's Literature Challenge for adult readers who want to grow in their understanding of children's literature. Think of this as the best professional development assignment ever.
SIMPLE STRUCTURE
We kept the simpler structure of last year year (10 mini-challenges) instead of our previous 4 levels (Baker's Dozen: 13 books, Quarterback: 25 books, Weekly Reader: 50 books, and Grand Slam: 100 books).
10 books each on 10 different mini-challenges. (Readers can still read 100 books in a year if they want! But they can also read one list of 10.)
Teachers can choose a themed mini-challenge that fits their class (like our Science & Nature List). Individual readers can start with whichever theme sounds most fun (like the Rainy Day Reads List).
FLEXIBILITY
We don't want kids or teens weighed down because they missed a particular category. After all, even reading 10 books in one year is an accomplishment! The new format allows a young reader to keep redoing a favorite list (like the Moving Pictures List) if that's what helps them the most. Alternatively, young readers can attempt to read through all 10 mini-challenges and still read 100 books this year.
Added in 2024: A challenge that's ALL "your choice" for kids and teens who like to create their own! (This is technically an ELEVENTH mini-challenge; we left the other 10 intact with minor category changes.)
CHILDREN'S LITERATURE CHALLENGES FOR GROWNUPS!
FOUR challenges for grownups (and kids/teens can join in if they want):
- Picture Books, original version
- Picture Books, version #2
- Children's/Middle Grades Novels, original version
- Children's/Middle Grades Novels, version #2
Each of these work as mini-master-classes in learning to evaluate children's books. We'll be providing book suggestions in our forums!
TRACKERS AND GOLD STARS
Each mini-challenge includes places to list the books read *and* rate them on a scale of 1-5 stars. Once readers finish a list, they can log their favorite book of that particular group and the date completed.
A READING CHALLENGE FORUM!
We now have a dedicated forum hosted here on Redeemed Reader. All members at any level have access to the forums. We've created one forum just for the reading challenge, including sub-forums for the mini-challenges. Can't figure out a book for a category? Ask it in the forums. Want to share your successes? We'd love to hear about it in the forum!
Fellowship Members also have access to the Reading Challenge Hub with all the trackers and resources they will need all year; you can print one mini-challenge at a time or all at once. Enjoy! Not a member? After January 31, 2025, you can only access the reading challenge materials through membership. Find out more about membership here.
Reading Challenge Inspiration Gallery
Curious what a "completed" reading challenge would look like in terms of actual books? Check out our inspiration gallery below. **These are for previous editions of the challenge, but these books will work for similar categories on the 2023 challenge.**
Fine print: Most of these books have been reviewed on Redeemed Reader. Remember to check out reviews of unfamiliar books before handing them to a child.
