“Read, Kids, Read”

There’s an opinion piece in today’s New York Times by Frank Bruni about how little children in today’s society read.  Although there is nothing new in this statement, it can be very disheartening, especially because of the great literature that is being published in both the children’s and young adult areas.  Common Sense Media just produced a report about children and teen reading habits that has shown the decrease in reading at these ages.  The cause… sports, school projects, video games, cell phones, technology in general, any number of things.  But there are ways to encourage reading amongst children and teens:

1.) Access to books – many researchers claim that having access to books is one of the best ways to encourage reading

2.) Allow your children to see you read – show your children that you value putting aside time to read, read anything, books, the newspaper, magazines!

3.) Read aloud to your children – my parents read aloud to us for as long as I can remember all the way through senior year of high school.  Every morning as we got ready for school mom would sit and read aloud from all sorts of books, picture books, chapter books, poems, whatever we were interested in hearing.

4.) Choice – if books are “boring” to kids then they just haven’t found the right one yet.  Ask librarians, book sellers, and friends about book suggestions or check online at websites like Goodreads.  As a librarian, I am convinced there is a book out there for everyone, you just have to find it.