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Raising Readers
by
Lauren Roberts
With the mad rush to stores to buy the latest Harry Potter book, you wouldn’t think there would be much of a need for encouraging reading among children. But there’s always a need to support—not push—the habit of reading beyond one book or series.
To that end, I’d like to share something I came across last night. I am in the beginning stages of reorganizing my bookmark collection into categories. It’s an enormous undertaking, one that will ultimately use up months of my time. But it’s also a joy, allowing me to become intimately reacquainted with bookmarks that I might only see a single side of or not see at all for long periods of time.
This particular bookmark that captured my attention is from the Coalition for School Libraries from the North Vancouver District Public Library. It’s tall and thin, perhaps 8” x 1 1/2”. The front has a rainbow background and a poem by Allison Taylor McBryde entitled Raising Readers that begins:
Read a book.
Read out loud.
Read to one or
to a crowd!
There are ten stanzas, and the last one ends by summing the experience of reading up nicely: “The best stories never end.”
How true that is. It’s not only the stories that do not end. It’s the act of reading if children are gifted with that love of reading early on. If you don’t have children but you feel passionately about sharing your love of reading, why not volunteer at a school that needs help? Or volunteer at your library. Even giving a child a book or sharing a reading hour can make a difference in that child’s life. But for parents or other adults who are consistently part of a particular child’s life, this bookmark offers—and I share them here with thanks to the Vancouver Public Library system—“Tips for Raising Readers”:
- Make reading a part of everyday life. Read every day.
- Let children choose their own books.
- Set aside a quiet time to enjoy books with your older child too.
- Take time to enjoy and discuss the illustrations, details, colours, characters’ expressions.
- Focus on the sense of stories and let small mistakes slip by.
- Kids copy you. Make sure they see you reading.
- Emphasize fun over finishing.
- Have reading and writing materials available at home.
- Know what is happening at your child’s school: class reading, topics of study, times of library visits.
- Ask the teacher-librarian at your child’s school for reading suggestions.
- Ask the librarian at your public library for reading suggestions.
- Read with expression and have fun! Fine children’s books are a joy for readers of all ages.
Almost since her childhood days of Mother Goose, Lauren has been giving her opinion on books to anyone who will listen. That “talent” eventually took her out of magazine writing and into book reviewing in 2000 for an online review site where she cut her teeth (as well as a few authors). Stints as book editor for her local newspaper and contributing editor to Booklist and Bookmarks magazines has reinforced her belief that she has interesting things to say about books. Lauren shares her home with several significant others including three cats, 900 bookmarks and approximately 1,000 books that, whether previously read or not, constitute her to-be-read stack. She is a member of the National Books Critics Circle (NBCC) and Book Publicists of Southern California as well as a longtime book design judge for Publishers Marketing Association’s Benjamin Franklin Awards. You can reach her at
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