Parent Resource: How to Get Your Child to Love Reading by Esme Raji Codell

Written by an educator and librarian,How to Get Your Child to Love Reading: For Ravenous and Reluctant Readers Alike is a 500+ page guide for parents!  Codell provides activities, ideas, and inspiration for exploring everything in the world through books.  Codell, resists grouping books by age level.  Instead, she offers a simple method for determining whether a book is too difficult while pointing out that kids may listen on a much higher level than they read. She offers scores of thematic book lists parents can use to inspire young readers, ranging from topics as diverse as medieval England to dinosaurs or hiccups.

Inside this fantastic resource, you will find:

• Over 3,000 hand-picked titles on every subject under the sun
• Hundreds of child-tested, teacher-approved craft ideas, storytimes, book-based parties, mad-scientist experiments, cooking forays, web-site recommendations, and reading-club activities
• Reassuring and simple approaches to reading aloud with children from birthday through eighth grade
• Support for parents of reluctant readers and enriching ideas for eager readers
• Extensive indexes for locating books by subject, author, and title
• Suggestions for volunteer activities and for getting involved in your child’s school
• Easy access to award-winning books
• Exciting ways to reward reading progress

This book is an indispensible resource for all parents who want to engage their children in reading.  And like Jim Trelease before her, Codell also has her own website where she continues to share information on reading for parents, educators, and librarians.

Dawn Little (aka Links to Literacy) also blogs at www.teachingwithpicturebooks.wordpress.com where she provides educators with picture book lessons based on comprehension strategies and the Six Traits of Writing.  In addition, she blogs at www.literacytoolbox.wordpress.com where she provides educators and parents with tips and tools to enhance the literacy lives of children.  She is the founder and owner of Links to Literacy, a company dedicated to providing interactive literacy experiences for children and families.  Find out more at www.linkstoliteracy.com