by Will Peters, Bookji Founder
Sep 8, 2021
Bookji just released the newest way for kids to find books, and it's called Emoji Search.
Traditionally, children gave books a rating on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. However, this rating scale is can be uninformative for young readers trying to find the right book. With the vast amount of tastes and preferences for books out there, it's hard to judge if a book is right for you based on the 5 out of 5 star rating that someone else gave.
Bookji lets kids react to books with emojis to express their feelings towards a book. Then, kids can search for the top books that other students said where "mind-blowing," "warm and fuzzy," "rolling on the floor laughing," and more. Interesting, right?
Not only is this a more fun way of ranking and searching for books, it can also expose students to new genres. For example, a student may think he or she is only interested in fantasy novels. But when they go to search for a book using a tool like Emoji Search, books that are "mind-blowing" may seem fascinating to them. Under the "mind-blowing" category there are many different genres represented that are rated by other students. Among these are historial fiction books like The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Bruaker Bradley, mystery books like The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, and fantasy books like Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan.
Emojis started off as a way to express yourself through texts, but should not be limited to this. Educators can capitalize on the prevalence of emojis in today's society by using their expressiveness to make reading more fun and finding books more natural.