I love reading, and it makes me beyond happy when I see my kids picking up a book, magazine or anything else to read.
What I’ve discovered as a parent is that our kids take their reading cues in many different ways. I didn’t want to force the reading of books that I expected them to love or that I felt they should be reading because that’s what their peers enjoyed. My son has a great appreciation for non-fiction books. While he’s discovered fiction that he loves, non-fiction keeps him coming back. These are books about things. How things work, where things come from. Nature, science, crafts, life skills. I realized for years these have been some of his favourite types of books. While we read Dr. Seuss and many books together that were fun, light stories, he always was drawn to fact books.
My daughter meanwhile took an early interest in comic books. Super hero comic books in particular. There are comic books that are all ages, but know that if it’s a super hero book there is still super hero fighting. I accepted this primarily because I love these books as well, and because she was so interested in the stories. There were also a lot of strong women super heroes that I know she enjoyed reading about. These comic books were early readers for her and I soon realized that she was recognizing words in the books.
For readers of all ages, we all have different preferences. When the kids were younger and were emerging readers, at times even reluctant, I was happy for them to try any type of book that seemed to draw them in. Even though I expected the early novels to be the most popular, they were.
Here are three different types of books to consider for kids to encourage more reading:
Comic Books and Graphic novels
These were a huge hit with my daughter especially. Even now that she’s reading chapter books, she still turns to these. Look for the Baby Mouse series if you don’t want to find a super hero set.
For my son, it’s all about Calvin and Hobbes. They are just as funny as I remember them!
Non-Fiction
National Geographic has excellent non-fiction books. So does Usborne. Let the kids browse the book store or library for topics that they are most interested in.
Magazines
Kayak magazine has been excellent for my history lover. Chirp was an early magazine the kids used to get. You can sign up for subscriptions of your child’s favourite magazine or just grab a few to see which ones they seem to connect to.
What is your child loving to read right now?
