Appropriate grades or age groups:
Preschool and Younger
Elementary School

Estimated time to complete activity or implement technique:
30 minutes

Materials needed (if applicable):
Picture books, early chapter books, non-fiction books, and short novels all relating to the same theme.

Activity set-up/instructions or description of technique:
Our family picks a theme every month. For March we picked the Iditarod and we read aloud a picture book to start our interest and then everyone chooses where to go from there. The younger ones ask for more picture books to be read aloud, the older ones pick out a chapter book. For April we read holiday and Spring books, for May we are reading summer books, and June is sports.

Other suggestions or comments:
The trick is to find a lot of books. Twenty or thirty books is a good base. Sometimes that means we read the Christmas books a month or two early so we can check out a lot.

Whatever new books are out (Harry Potter, Capt Underpants, etc) will always be the most wanted and I've found that they will read these in addition to the themes.