Here we report the synthesis of covalent triazine frameworks (CTFs) using benzyl halide monomers which are more cost-effective and with higher availability than previous ones. The resulting CTFs were successfully applied for efficient photocatalytic reforming of glucose for the first time, with a high hydrogen evolution rate up to 330 μmol g-1 h-1 under pH = 12. This work presented a new way to synthesize CTFs and further exhibited their potential applications in photocatalytic biomass reforming.