Helping Children Like Reading

Blogger Jen Robinson, a guest columnist at PBS Parents this month, put together an excellent post of suggestions for helping children to enjoy reading. (Scroll down at PBS Parents for Jen's roundup of tips, which are toward the bottom of the page.) For our family, a key factor in regard to reading independently was the matchup of book and reader. In our son's case, it was Calvin & Hobbes, which I wrote about last spring. Even now, Junior prefers comics and graphic novels, including the Babymouse series (it's not just for girls), when he reads at home. Sometimes he and his dad grab their books and head to Starbucks for some hot chocolate and reading (and hanging out).

Comments

[Kelly Fineman]

I adore Calvin and Hobbes. Still. I keep thinking I should buy the ginormous retrospective book, but it's far too expensive at $150.

I'm psyched to hear that your son likes Babymouse. That's awesome. I'm hearing great things about the Artemis Fowl GN, too.

[Susan T.]

Hey, Kelly. He loves Babymouse. I don't think he reads them at school, but we have plenty of them here at home.

[Sara]

I can't remember if I've said this before, but my son learned how to read from Calvin and Hobbes. He would curl up and look at all the strips, and occasionally ask for help with a big word.

Kelly: we were lucky, and received the ginormous collection as a gift. (All our old, paperback originals were falling apart due to lots of love.)

And whee! Isn't Jen doing great over there?

[Susan T.]

Sara, I'm not surprised to hear that about your son; the comics are so funny that of course he's want to see what they're saying! So many kids just love those books. Jr. has learned several big words from the C & H books, which we buy at library sales. Right now he's in a Garfield phase.

[Jen Robinson]

Thanks for sending people over to PBS, Susan! Of course the article itself is a product of lots of people's input. And I love this added input here, about your son learning from Calvin and Hobbes, and reading Babymouse. I like the picture of Dad and Junior sitting around Starbucks reading, too. I picture it with the pink Babymouse cover peeking out.

Thanks for the good wishes, Sara, too. It helps a lot that my loyal blog friends are helping so much with the discussion.

[Susan T.]

Jen, you're welcome. It's been fun watching the discussion roll along over there at PBS.

[Jules]

When my almost four-year-old sees a Babymouse title, she sits and sits and sits and sits with it, poring over pictures. Begs me to read it to her. The littlest of kids are fascinated with them, too, you know? They sure have gone far in helping many kids with reading.

Go, Jen!

[Susan T.]

That is so sweet, Jules. Another series that seems to span ages is Phonics Comics, which is popular with kids even older than the learning-to-read group. They're always checked out at the school library.

[Camille]

We owe so so much to Bill watterson!

I was amazed to see a group of boys with their Rurouni Kenshin graphic novels meeting before school at a local high school last year. I think the boys must have been 9th graders. I was stunned and thrilled to see them meeting in the library to talk about the books! I bet all of them were Calvin and Hobbes fans.

[Susan T.]

That's cool, Camille. I don't know those books but will keep a lookout for them.