Guiding Kids to Discover Reading

 

One bookcase of many in our home.

"Hey, kids! It's your old buddy Steve King telling you that if they ban a book in your school library, ...(go) to the nearest bookstore or library ASAP and find out what they don't want you to read..." I had to laugh when I read that quote, which I am sure King meant with humor and a little annoyance about the extreme book banning we have seen of even classic literature.  In my childhood, I was left on my own to select books, and I missed so many wonderful classics, but on the other hand, I became a serious reader for life, and perhaps that was the most important thing.  However, that is where a Librarian could have been helpful.  As an adult, I have enjoyed reading classic Children's books belatedly.

Among some of my favorite children's books that have been banned are Charlotte's Web, The Giving Tree, and Where the Wild Things are.  Apparently, some of the book banners find talking animals inappropriate.  That thinking could eliminate so many wonderful books, if children were kept from reading them.  What about dolls?  Don't most children talk to their dolls?  What about pets?  Don't children talk to pets?  A healthy imagination is important for children, and although I tend to think classic children's books are better written than many modern books, I am grateful for librarians who continue to challenge ridiculous banning.   

 I have returned to continue this blog about encouraging kids to read because a friend posted a comment to last week's blog that I just had to share. I "met" this friend because a mutual friend of mine told him about my efforts to write "Prairie Bachelor."  We began to correspond, although he lived on the other side of the world, and the correspondence has continued.  The following is his response to last week's blog.  

"My Mother was so glad when I started school and learned to read because I shut up asking questions. We always had a good cross section of newspapers and Magazines in our home. Black Beauty was my first real book. When (his) kids were young we had all the Dr. Seuss books and all the Bernstein Bears which we read over and over ad nauseum. We had dozens of Little Golden Books. As they grew older, they started their own book shelves...Anne of Green Gables series, The Little House on the Prairie series, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe series, Robin Hood, Treasure Island, etc. The youngest is a Librarian in London, U.K., second oldest is a Professor of Victorian Literature, son has read every serious novel he can lay his hands on, the oldest reads adult paperbacks." 

Thank you my long-distance friend for sharing your family's love of reading. Although you did not mention it, I am certain that seeing their father reading had an important impact on their love for reading. 

 What his reply to last week's post reminded me was the presence of magazines and newspapers in my childhood home. My mother did belong to a book club for a while, where she received a new novel every 3 months, but it was really the newspapers and magazines that I saw my parents reading most of the time. It had not occurred to me how important that must have been to me. Although I did not see them reading books as often, I certainly saw them reading the many magazine subscriptions that came in the mail. Today, children have less opportunity to see their parents reading, so many small-town newspapers having disappeared in many communities, although we still have our local weekly paper. Magazines are begging for subscribers. With kids today having less likely opportunity to see their parents reading, it is all the more important to read to them from early childhood until they can read for themselves.