How to Get Your Child to Love Reading

by Esmé Raji Codell

Book Overview

"An exuberant treasure trove for parents."

--Publishers Weekly

Are children reading enough? Not according to most parents and teachers, who know that reading aloud with children fosters a lifelong love of books, ensures better standardized test scores, promotes greater success in school, and helps instill the values we most want to pass on.

Esm Raji Codell--an inspiring children's literature specialist and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565123085
• ISBN13: 9781565123083
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: Algonquin Books
• Length: 531 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 7.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Reading Resource Extraordinaire!

What a fun, cleverly written book! Codell's writing is inspiring as well as informative. She provides tons and tons of ideas for reading materials on all manners of topics from social studies to bath time. But she doesn't stop there! She also includes clever ideas to make reading come to life for kids. As an avid lover of resource and child education books, I admit I only own few but this one is a keeper. I would recommend this for parents of infants through early elementary students. If you are looking for reading material to augment your child's life experiences or classroom experiences, I believe this book would be a valuable asset. Happy Reading!

This book is impossible to borrow, you have to buy!!!

I checked this book out from the library, interested in this whopping 500 page book! I had heard about the author from her Educating Esme book. I was interested in what she had to say, being a teacher myself. This book is quite inspiring, for children, teachers, and parents alike!!!I am obviously a huge advocate for children being surrounded by books and as well as ordering from scholastic every month, I scan the titles at the local bookstores, hoping that someday, the book fairy will come down and wave his/her magic wand at me! All silliness aside, reading about reading always gets me excited!I have no idea where she came up with all of those titles, she must have done tons of researching, because there are over 3000 titles in this book alone! I loved the little pages full of advice and ideas... example: Your Job: Connect children with books. Basically, if they want to be an accountant, read: Alexander, who used to be rich last Sunday. If they want to be in hotel management, read Rabbit Inn. Her chapters range for ages from infants to teenagers, stopping at interesting subjects in between! Books in the bath, alphabet and counting books, wordless books, unbirthday stories, civil war, slavery, Africa, Asia, the list goes on and on! Also, there are lots of little advice columns for those that need help. She responds, Dear gentle reader...I wish there was a book around when I was younger so I could have a greater access to all of these titles! Reading to children is the most important thing we can do for them because it spells out love and caring! I have to buy it!

Esme strikes again!

What an amazing author! What an incredible book! From the woman who brought us "Educating Esme" comes another gem that helps those who help kids.If you love to read, to wallow in the sheer delight of works scampering across the page and want to share this with a child....If you wish to bring a reluctant reader back into the fold...If you work as a teacher, Librarian, Parent, Mentor, caregiver...if you touch a child's life at all then this book is for you!!!Not only does her wit shine through, making this an enjoyable read, but she has practicle and applicable ideas. There are a variety of things that you can do for the slow, reluctant and non-reader, and her advise is sound.If you skim a chapter, read a hunk, or devour the whole book please pick this up....amazing and fun, useful and practical....researching for work has never been this much fun!Thank You Esme!!!

Rx for Illiteracy

_How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_ was conceived when Esmé was staring at a shriveled potato that was sprouting eyes. She wondered, " . . . if I had a potato, nothing but a potato, how could I teach a classroom full of children? Well, I could cut a potato in half. (I can use the paring knife from my own kitchen, right?) We could review fractions. With one half, I could cut a design and do potato prints. We could plant the eyes from the other half of the potato (it can have eyes, right?) and grow more potatoes, charting their growth." The ideas cascade: writing a story about a potato, making a book of potato recipes or potato poems, making potato stamps of all the letters, teaching reading, getting books from the library about potatoes, talking about the Irish potato famine, writing letters to executives about potato chips or Mr. Potato Head.The preceding excerpt illustrates the boundless creativity of author Esmé Raji Codell. On this first page she establishes the metaphor that recurs throughout _How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_: "Children's literature is our national potato." It is the seed that, through its many shoots, can help our children become caring, educated citizens.Although the cover dubs _How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_ a "Parent's Guide," this book is a treasure trove for teachers, librarians, grandparents, anyone who cares about children and books. It provides "activities, ideas, and inspiration for exploring everything in the world through books." It is a valuable resource for nourishing juvenile readers, both the reluctant and the ravenous. _How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_ includes over 3,000 titles recommended for children from birth through eighth grade. However, it doesn't stop with mere recommendations. As Esmé says, "This book is a recipe book for children's literature: how to serve it up so it's delicious and varied."After a section on reading with "the littlest bambinos," _How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_ is organized by subject matter: social studies, math and science, story books, etc. Esmé subdivides the broad categories, however, so that book lists have very specific headings. She offers books for specific seasons, for special occasions (such as the arrival of a sibling or losing a tooth), for dealing with everyday problems (tattling or the hiccups).Because the categories are so specific, many books are listed simply by title and author. That is sufficient. Sometimes Esmé adds just a word or two of description. For example, in the math section the note "place value" beside the title _The King's Commissioners_ is extremely elucidating. For some books Esmé provides sentence summaries. For others she provides more information, even excerpts. She provides just enough information to whet our appetites.But _How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_ has so much more! Esmé's wisdom and revelry shine through on every page. Esmé includes dozens of articles, some on controversial subjects (for example,