It starts when they’re young. Parents read stories to their newborns and toddlers. Their children may not understand the words at first but reading aloud makes them familiar with the sounds, cadence, and intonations of language. More than that, they bond. No one can deny the feeling of connection that happens when you read to someone you love or how it feels when they read to you.

Reading to Children

As children grow older, those spoken words take on meaning. Suddenly, characters jump off the page and do silly things. They make them laugh and maybe even cry. Sometimes, they raise moral issues and kids wonder how they got into so much trouble. Imagination takes off, and before you know it, parents and kids are talking.

You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back and relax all you need is a book!

Dr. Seuss

Kids come to crave those stories, whether they occur during the day or at bedtime. They may even enjoy going to the library or local bookstore to have stories read to them. Kathleen Kelly’s passion for children’s books as the Storybook Lady in You’ve Got Mail gets me every time!

Reading in School

Once they start school, kids start reading books in class. Back in my day, we called it English. My kids now have Language Arts. I admit it sounds more inclusive and I love that! What we can really call it though is a book club.

Sure, it’s not a traditional book club. Book clubs are groups we opt in to, groups where we read things we choose. Think Oprah Winfrey (perhaps the most famous celebrity book club), Reese Witherspoon (a book club focused on books written by and about women), and even NFL quarterback Andrew Luck (a book club that encourages readers at all reading levels, kids included). Personally, I’d choose Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library over all of them. It’s not a book club per se but it gets millions of free books into the hands of children around the world.

Kids may not always get to choose the books they read in school but it’s a book club all the same. Everyone reads the same books, talks about the symbolism and themes, and writes book reports about them. Unfortunately, school does not always get it right.

There’s no such thing as a kid who hates reading. There are kids who love reading, and kids who are reading the wrong books.

James Patterson

My son was not a fan of reading in middle school because he was not interested in the books assigned to him. I don’t blame him. Although I am a voracious reader now, I freely admit that I did not enjoy many of the books I had to read back in school either. Lord Jim? No thanks.

Family Book Club

More than anything, I wanted my son to find the joy in reading. So, I found a popular book I thought would interest him, one that had a movie adaptation. I read it first to make sure it would be a good fit. After casually telling him how good the book was, I recommended we read it together and reward ourselves with a movie night. He was hesitant at first and it took a few chapters (and weeks) for him to find his groove. But I’ll never forget when he started reading for the love of the story, and not because he felt obligated to turn the page. He literally jumped out of his seat at the book’s climax! We’ve been reading together ever since. Our latest was the Ray Bradbury classic Fahrenheit 451 (he’s a high schooler now).

There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

My daughter never hit the road block my son did, not really. She is and always has been an avid reader. Over the years, she saw how I enjoyed reading in my spare time and she followed suit. Like mother, like daughter. She would read a book and, if she found it interesting, she’d ask me to read it too. From Finding Gobi by Dion Leonard to Wonder by R. J. Palacio, she continued our family book club!

Our family book club is one of the best things I’ve ever been a part of. I’ve enjoyed reading classics and modern stories. How exciting it is to talk about the highs and lows of a story, what excites someone, what leads them astray. To talk about these things with my kids brings us closer together in so many ways.

That’s why I encourage you to think about doing this with your own kids. It it is so important to find books that engage them. Pick a book together or let them pick one so you can see what really interests them. For kicks, watch an adapted movie or show afterward (we did this with His Dark Materials too). Bring them back to those days when you read to them as babies and toddlers, when they looked up at you with excitement and awe. Even if you don’t read out loud to them now, that feeling of connection still resonates. Share stories. Better yet, keep them talking. It’s what parenting is all about.