Build Your Child’S Interest In Reading
Thank you, Harry Potter, for succeeding where scores of frustrated parents and teachers have floundered: coaxing children to read for the fun of it.
Also magical about J.K. Rowling’s books is their cross-generational appeal. They’re aimed at children age 8 and up, but a grandmother reading them to a child may be equally enchanted.
Harry Potter, 11, attends a boarding school for wizards. And though the magic element of these tales is often a concern among resurgent book-banners, there’s little to squeak about. These stories are clean, imaginative fun in a fantasy world of magic wands, sporty broomsticks and invisibility cloaks. Harry’s also just a school kid with family issues and peer pressures young readers can relate to.
“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” last fall became the first children’s novel to top the best-seller list, and all three Potter books hold positions there now. That The New York Times is considering creating a separate children’s list is very exciting news in this electronic age.
Young readers impatient for the fourth book are forming Harry Potter clubs. Club members at Spokane’s Hutton Elementary School choose characters and role-play during get-togethers.
Clearly, Harry’s got our kids hooked on reading. As parents, it’s our job to set that hook.
First, don’t let your kids run out of appetizing reads. Bring on books you enjoyed as a child. Consult book stores and libraries. Keep the fire stoked by introducing other prolific authors and sets such as “The Chronicles of Narnia,” “The Lord of the Rings,” E.B. White’s books and the Little House series.
Beyond screening for objectionable material, avoid criticizing your child’s taste in reading material. Let them be kids. Nurture their interest.
Set an example by reading for pleasure in front of your kids. They probably think we read as children only because we didn’t have computers, VCRs or Game Boy. Reminisce about happy summer hours spent devouring “Nancy Drew” and “The Hardy Boys.”
Use your child’s interest in movies to your advantage. One 11-year-old member of the Harry Potter Withdrawal Club in Cincinnati notes that when comparing a book to a video, “every single time the book is better than the video.” Too bad there isn’t a way to bottle that revelation and sprinkle it on movie popcorn.
Of course, the film format is limited; “Gone With the Wind” would be a nine-hour movie if it followed the book. Point out to your kids that not only are books more detailed, the endings sometimes are entirely different, as in “Jurassic Park.” Look for classic books your children enjoy on video - “Charlotte’s Web,” “Stuart Little,” “Black Beauty.” Your kids may not realize these stories were books first.
Case in point: A 20-ish cashier at a book/video store recently was ringing up a sale of Carl Sagan’s novel, “Contact.” He said, “Oh, I didn’t know they made that movie into a book.”
Don’t let this be your child. Fan those flames of reading passion.