I can't imagine not reading. For as long as I can remember, I have always read a lot. Some of my favourite childhood memories are of curling up in the study reading a book.
Back in those days, when there were next-to-no-stresses in my life (funny how it never seems like that at the time!) I remember sitting down and reading most books from start to finish. To keep up with all that reading, I would go to the library and book store more than often. I really liked it when my dad would suggest some of his old favourites, and then discuss them with me when I finished.
It is hard for me, with all of these memories, to imagine that there are kids, and adults, who don't like to read. The fact that there are any illiterate people out there depresses me. It frightens me to learn that less than 50 per cent of fourth grade children read daily for pleasure. That number dips to less than 25 per cent once kids reach grade 12, which is just plain scary.
How can this affect your children? A Queen's University study has shown that kids who read less than one hour a week are "more likely to: have low self-esteem, have a less satisfying relationship with their parents, have a negative attitude towards school, and be experiencing difficulty at school."
"Enough already," you're saying. "My kids need to read! I know that, but how do I get them to?"
Well, you need to start with a new book by Paul Kropp called "Raising a Reader." If I could, I would make it required reading for every parent on the planet. The book is fascinating. Starting from the foreword by Robert Munsch right through to the end of the section on "Infancy to age five" I was hooked. (Since my daughter is just two-years-old, the other sections weren't quite as relevant for me at this point!)
Munsch describes the book best: "This book is about how family environment and interaction affect reading." Kropp, a teacher for more than 20 years, explains how important we parents are to helping our kids become readers. He talks about how to incorporate reading into our children's day to day activities, how to interact and deal with teachers and schools, and how to deal with typical grade four and grade nine reading slumps. (Which I didn't even know were common!)
Kropp suggests that the way to read the book is to do just what I did -- read the first three chapters to get the basic principals, then go to the specific section that pertains to your child. Specific problems are outlined in chapters 10, 11 and 12, and the last section deals with literacy and government policy.
There are a few things that aren't perfect about this book. Kropp is American, so much of the data he sites is based on U.S. statistics. He also incorporates lots of "bits and pieces of information" in the margins, which are interesting, but I found to be a bit of a distraction. I would have preferred to see them incorporated into the text a bit more.
The former problem is alleviated because Kropp is from Buffalo, and uses many Canadian examples in the book. He obviously knows what is going on north of the border. The latter is probably my own bias.
There are lots of things that make this book a must-read. If I ever write a book, I sure hope Robert Munsch will write a foreword for it. He almost manages to steal the show -- luckily enough it is just two pages. Kropp writes really well, too, and his easy, informative, entertaining writing style does justice to Munsch's glowing preamble.
If you are interested in bringing up a reading child, you should have a look at "Raising a Reader." It will be a worthwhile effort for both you and your child for many years to come.