Ten Tips for Raising Readers

by Fran Hawk

Strategies for teachers, parents and grandparents to encourage children to enjoy reading for life, with specific book titles sorted by age group and other resources including websites.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0615290248
• ISBN13: 9780615290249
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: Pond House Press
• Length: 92 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.

Customer Reviews

a great gift for new parents!

My girlfriend received this when she was still in the maternity ward. She realized that one thing she can do immediately when she got home with her baby was read together, and she told me this little book was the best gift she got! I have since bought two more as new baby gifts (one of the recipients was a first-time grandma).

Fran Hawk's Ten Tips Would Make Bradbury Proud

Groucho Marx once said, "Outside of a dog, a man's best friend is a book. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." The recently released Ten Tips for Raising Readers, by retired librarian and Charleston columnist Fran Hawk, feels a lot like this quote. Not the part about being inside of a dog, but the tone--comedic and yet practical, with worthy wisdom on the side. I picked up this book because I know Hawk personally. I know she's got a bunch of grandkids, and she's the children's book columnist for the Charleston Post and Courier. I know she has a Master's Degree in Library Science, and I know she was an inspirational--and sometimes controversial-- librarian who took what she'd learned with her own children and equated it to creative child psychology in the workplace. (Ex. Danny buried all the toys in the sandbox today? It's going to be a bad day for Danny.) These professional and personal encounters inspired Hawk to encourage reading in children and adults alike, and now, thanks to Ten Tips for Raising Readers, I can be inspired, too. The format is simple. Each chapter starts with a "Tip." Then, building upon her own experience as librarian, columnist, mother, and grandmother, Hawk expands upon her tip. Using the comedy of Groucho and the wisdom of Atticus Finch, she makes her tips easy and accessible to parents and educators, dealing with children from the terrible twos to the terrible teens. A "Be Your Own Librarian" section at the end of each chapter gives you the practical steps to make the tip really happen, and finally, Hawk lists a couple of her favorite titles in age-specific segments. Throughout, there is an ever-present comic touch. This is not an academic theses; this is an entertaining play-by-play from a parent/librarian who has been there, fighting on the front lines for literacy. Do I sound over-dramatic? Well, I'm not. Listen to this: "I've met children who arrived for 4-year-old kindergarten completely mystified by how to open a book, much less what was inside" (TTRR, pg. 12). If this doesn't terrify you, I'm sending Mickey Rourke to your house for dinner, because obviously, NOTHING terrifies you. Hawk wants you to know--when kids don't read, they miss out. Honestly, I don't really understand kids. I don't get along with kids. And yet, for the past four years of my life, what have I done? I've publicized children's books and the authors who write them. Why do I do this? Because like Mrs. Hawk, I believe in what children's books accomplish. I thoroughly, passionately believe that children need to be raised reading. I believe kids who read will end up smarter, more socially adept, and more successful, and I will fight `til I'm broken and bleeding to keep kids reading. So will Fran Hawk. Hawk also included this quote in Ten Tips for Raising Readers, from Caldecott winner Gail E. Haley: "Children who are not spoken to by live and responsive adults will not learn to speak properly. Children who are not answered will stop asking