By Lauren
At ABC, we love anything that gets people reading, including introducing the next generation of booklovers to the classics. And as a mother of young adults, I can attest it’s not always easy.
This is where BookTok comes in. It is a dedicated community of readers and reviewers whose short, often-viral video recommendations have created a new wave of bookish influencers.
They’re usually young and tend to focus on YA fiction or fantasy and romance novels, which draw in young, often first-time, readers. But BookTok has also jump started the careers of new authors, while sending older ones back to the top of bestseller lists.
This includes the classics. BookTok has a dedicated hashtag for classic books, where young (and older) viewers can choose from a gazillion video posts that suit their fancy, from Russian literature to Mark Twain.
It’s a great way to get students reading, as they often prefer (at least according to my kids) to take reading advice from people more their own age and closer in lifestyle.
So while we applaud the BookTok sensations that highlight newer authors and their works (including Colleen Hoover’s It Ends with Us and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller), we’ve put together a highlight list of classics given new life by BookTok. Think of it as a teacher’s cheat sheet, one that will help educators get their students cracking spines and give anyone wanting to introduce kids to literature a head start.
