Getting Kids to Love Reading
Reading helps develop concentration
A great way to get children reading, and loving it, is to read to them from the time that they are born.
“Reading to tiny babies is about treating them to the wonderful sound of their parents’ voices,” says children’s book author Daphne Lee, who also writes a weekly book column, called Tots to Teens, for Malaysia’s The Star newspaper.
“It’s a sound they’ve got to know from the womb and it will be familiar and comforting to them. Reading to them regularly also gets them used to focusing on the steady rhythm of a story being told, or a poem being recited.
“If you hold them in your arms while they read, there’s the heavenly feeling of being loved and wanted, coupled with the sound of a loving voice—they will grow up associating reading and books with the feeling of being enveloped in love—a very positive thing, if you ask me.”
Reading aloud to children also helps them fix their attention on a story. “Being read to helps us develop the ability to listen without our attention wandering,” explains Daphne.
Children are great imitators and parents would do well to lead by example. If we want our children to be voracious readers, then we should be voracious readers ourselves.
Surrounding our children with a wealth of reading material is a good start. “Expose them to a variety of books—all kinds of genres and styles—and ensure that they include well-written prose and poetry. This will help them decide just what it is they like to read,” Daphne advises.
“Experimenting with different kinds of books helps a child figure out his or her reading tastes. It might also be that your child likes a bit of everything.”
Daphne Lee
But are there good children’s books and bad children’s books and who gets to decide what’s good and what’s bad? “If you are talking quality, then yes, there are good and bad children’s books—just as there are good and bad adult literature,” Daphne confirms.
“If it’s down to quality, then the more experienced reader (a parent or a teacher) would be the one to decide. If it’s to do with taste and personal preference, the children should be allowed to make up their own minds,” she continues.
There is, however, a caveat to this, which is that children should make their choices with the benefit of prior exposure to good quality literature. “It seems that parents aren’t very concerned about quality when it comes to books,” Daphne says.
“Read the children good books, written and illustrated beautifully. Don’t take the lazy/easy way out by only exposing them to books based on television programmes,” she adds.
Here are Daphne Lee’s picks for children and young adults
For Younger Readers
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Picture Books (for ALL ages)
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears: A West African Tale
I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato (Charlie & Lola)
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt: Anniversary Edition of a Modern Classic
The Blacker the Berry (Ala Notable Children’s Books. Middle Readers)
Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan (Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Books)
Round is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes
Fruits: A Caribbean Counting Poem
Mung-Mung: A Fold-Out Book of Animal Sounds (Multilingual Edition)
Fiction for Young Readers
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Young Adult Fiction
The Knife of Never Letting Go: Chaos Walking: Book One
His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Graphic Novels
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood & The Story of a Return: v. 1 & v. 2
The Complete Maus: A Survivor’s Tale (No 1)
