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I don't know that my girls would completely qualify as reluctant readers, but they certainly have their days. My oldest, especially, is very particular about not wanting to try new things in front of other people in case she makes a mistake.
While they are both reading well for their respective ages, we still do things to encourage them.
These tricks can definitely encourage your reader too, reluctant or not!
Reading to animals (stuffed or live) or younger siblings.
Animals are definitely good listeners and babies love books, so either way, you have an attentive non-judgemental audience.
Sometimes a new audience is all you need, so if you don't have one of the above handy grab a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or even a friend of the family.
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Reading chart with a reward for a certain number of books read.
I started our reading chart when we started working on sight words.
For every 20 books the girls read, they get to pick out a new book.
This is an especially good incentive when you get close to the end of the chart. My oldest daughter read 8 books in 2 or 3 days just to complete hers before our next trip to Barnes and Noble.
Tiny books for dolls to "read."
This was a total accident, but it worked out well.
All those little free printable readers you find online can be printed small by choosing to print multiple pages per sheet.
It was a total accident on my part, and we ended up with an entire set of doll sized books. Rather than waste them, I stapled them together and gave them to the girls who gave them to their dolls to read.
And they promptly read them ALL!
Sneaking reading in where they don't expect it.
For my oldest, this meant allowing her to play games on the Nintendo Wii as long as she was willing to read everything in the game (she is a Super Mario Galaxy fan).
Lots of video games have things that have to be read before you continue the game, and board games have instructions or cards to read.
You can make up games about reading too; we redid one of our games (Cariboo Re-Do) when the girls started phonics.
We unintentionally sneaked some reading in at a recent pirate birthday party where the girls decided they needed to read every treasure hunt clue themselves!
Other reward programs.
We participate in our libraries summer reading program, Barnes and Noble's summer reading program, and the Pizza Hut Book-it program (yes, it is open to homeschoolers too).
Pretty much any sort of recognition program with prizes will always get them going!
Of course there are tons of ways to encourage young readers.
These just happen to be the ones we use the most, and seriously, I think any kid would read more if it meant more video games or pizza.
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