How to awaken a love of reading in children

Meanwhile, in the back of my mind, I worry about their reading skills: Local school districts are under fire for their poor reading programs; in elementary school, I watched Andy struggle with Lucy Calkins, one such program that was widely criticized. I still have to fight to get him the proper support in public school for something as common as dyslexia, which affects about 1 in 5 people.

With all this in mind, I was thrilled to chat with Rachel Kanter: a Cambridge mom of three, a former K-12 English teacher, and the owner of Lovestruck Books, which is opening soon in Harvard Square, to talk about how to spark—and sustain—a love of reading in your child.

How to encourage reluctant readers? I don’t want reading to be a chore for my children.

The most important thing I’ve found for reluctant readers is just finding engaging content—things that are exciting and interesting to them, things that are culturally relevant. There’s this idea of ​​windows and mirrors and education: the idea that literature can be both a window into different perspectives that the reader isn’t familiar with, and a mirror that represents their own experience. So finding things that feel familiar to kids.

You mentioned that your son listens to books. I think audiobooks are a phenomenal way to engage readers—especially if you can get kids reading the text and listening. A lot of apps are integrated, so you can switch between listening and reading the text. I use an audio player called Yoto, which is like a parent reading the book to you. So I think that can be really familiar and comforting. The content is moving through middle-aged readers.

Can you recommend any specific books for middle school-age readers?

There are so many amazing YA books out there right now. One book that is engaging for reluctant readers is a book called Sold by Patricia McCormick. It’s about a girl who was sold into sex slavery in India. It’s a really meaningful, impactful story. But it’s also written in a series of short, vignette-style chapters from the main character’s point of view. Each chapter is a page or a page and a half. So it’s really accessible. It helps readers feel like they’re reading a book. I’ve found that it can help kids who are reluctant readers really feel a sense of accomplishment when the chapters are broken up into fewer pages.

Another one is “Amari and the Night Brothers,” which is kind of like a modern “Narnia” with a black protagonist. There’s “Red, White, and Whole” by Rajani LaRocca. That’s another book told in verse. The mother of the Native American protagonist has leukemia. It’s not just about focusing on books with tragic themes—but I think that can often be engaging because it’s a helpful perspective for kids.

Another thing I love for both older and younger readers is graphic novels. One example is Heartstopper, which is about two boys falling in love in high school, by Alice Oseman. It’s also a Netflix TV series. It can also be very engaging for kids, just because they know (Netflix).

Graphic novels sometimes get a bad rap because they aren’t “real” books.

Graphic novels can be very text-heavy. They can be very dense. And the images are tools that help kids engage with the story. I think they’re phenomenal. For example, my 6-year-old is really into “Wings of Fire” right now, the graphic novel version, which I think helps him access the text that would be off-limits to him at a reader’s level, but it’s still the same story. It also helps us read it together; it’s easier to digest a chapter with images because the chapters just aren’t as long. Not all graphic novels are created equal. But I think some of them can be really great.

This may seem like a basic question, but I struggle with it: How do you know what’s engaging content if your child isn’t drawn to books from the start?

Your bookseller is your best tool. Getting your local bookseller involved can be helpful. And I think it’s just: whatever your son is interested in. Is he interested in soccer? Is he interested in “Minecraft”? Find a hook, an activity that you can relate to. And again, I might also try to tie in with a movie—something he’s interested in separately, and then see if there’s a connection with the book to reinforce the connection of, “Oh, I can get the same story, the same type of content that I’m already interested in, just through a different medium.”

Let’s talk about younger children. How do you cultivate a love of quality reading at an early stage? Any tactics?

I think any reading is good reading, really. There are books that may have more academic value than others. But I think anything that reinforces the habit of sitting down and finding information for yourself through reading is valuable. Jeff Kinney’s books are fun! If they do it for 20 minutes a day, that’s a win.

What I have found helpful with young children is reading the same book over and over again so that they can start to memorize it and feel like they are reading it – anything that they can master to some extent.

And there are some great books for little kids that have that winking humor for adults. You know, they kind of break the fourth wall. One of them is Max and the Midknights by Lincoln Peirce. I love Elephant and Piggie by Mo Willems. I love all of Jon Klassen’s books. If you enjoy reading them, you’ll laugh with your child, or maybe it’ll inspire you to do a silly voice, something like that. That makes the reading experience fun.

Back to audiobooks: My son has access to a few apps at school and they are super repetitive. I hate how they sound. And Audible is expensive!

I really like Libro. It’s like a standalone version of Audible for audiobooks. When it comes to finding good ones, I’ve found that if the author is the narrator, they tend to be good. You can also sort by award winners.

It’s an interesting time to run a bookstore, given the prevailing censorship and book bans.

We are very fortunate to live in the state we live in, which is so progressive. I think it is very important to provide children with access to books, especially now.

I think bookstores can be a great resource, along with libraries, in terms of giving kids a space to browse on their own. I think independent bookstore owners and booksellers tend to have great recommendations and are very excited to talk to people, especially younger people, about what they want to read and can give them recommendations.

The other exciting thing is that people are really coming back to brick-and-mortar bookstores. There’s a sort of desire for that meeting space to be a community center.

The interview has been edited for clarity.

Kara Baskin can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @kcbaskin.