Encouraging children to fall in love with reading is a noble goal. Often, we think that people either love to read or they don’t. I think that’s kind of nonsense. Author James Patterson said, “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.” But how to find the “right” books?
Such an overwhelming topic! There are so many books- so many amazing, beautiful, thoughtful stories! So many crazy adventure stories! So many exciting, deeply interesting characters!
And so much crap. For real, so much junk out there too.
Find a Balance
When choosing books with your preschooler, I think it can be a tricky balance. In our family, we read the beautiful Newberry and Caldecott Award winners. We also read a lot of trash.
In my opinion, the goal is to inspire a love of reading and build your connection with your child. A balance, as with everything, is your key to success. Sometimes, your kid wants to read the book about a race car that says, “Vroom! Vroom!” again, again and again!
I remember a Cinderella book I had as a child that I made my parents read over and over. I came across it as an adult when my parents were moving- it was not a literary masterpiece. It was pretty bad, but as a child, I remember being enthralled by Cinderella’s dress and the holographic picture on the cover. I call these not-great-books “Gateway Books.” There may be something that really interests your child, or something they’re trying to figure out. Or an image or idea that they are imagining so much better than they can describe with the language they possess as a preschooler. These books that seem not great may actually be doing more to encourage their language, imagination and love of reading than we understand.
Don’t Forget the Classics
Also, expose them to the really great stories- the classic picture books- Where the Wild Things Are, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Strega Nona, Snowy Day. Try to find books that will be interesting to both you and them. If your child loves superheroes, find some books about superheroes.
Use Your Library
Libraries are just the best. Your child can explore books and figure out what he likes. You can take a few home and see what sticks. Then you can grow your home library with all the favorites.
For some ideas about great questions for the books, see the GLP Blog post here!
