How to make a child love books

[Iza]

So, as I've probably mentioned before, I'm 22 years old and I have a 10-year-old sister whom I love very very much. The thing is, she lives with my mother and her boyfriend, who don't read much (well, my mother sometimes does, but she's definitely not a regular reader) and she's not very into literature. The kids in her school aren't into it at all, either. My father reads quite a lot but he makes it worse by bugging her all the time about it, in a way that could make anyone hate books. I want to make her love them, or at least stop hating them. I think it will be good for her cause I remember how huge part of my childhood reading was and how much richer it made it. Plus, it will take her mind off YouTube and Instagram...

I have some ideas, like talking to her about my favourite books and ask her what hers are (cause she has read a few before), taking her to the library and showing her the movie The Book Thief (I watched it recently and loved it, maybe it will also teach her some things about history, but I don't know if she's old enough to watch it since it has some very sad scenes of war and death). Also it could be good to give her a book that's very popular among children of her age, like Harry Potter? I've never read Harry Potter but some of my classmates were obsessed with it. I've even thought about starting a book club for kids...

Do you have any ideas? Even crazy ones. Especially crazy ones.

 

[Knighttchi's Ballad]

Ha, what an interesting topic :^) When I was a kid, I loved to read books. I would regularly visit my public library and take a slew out from the children's section. One perk to the children's section is I never had to get my father to look over them because there was never anything inappropriate in them, although I do remember him mentioning he would have not given me one book if he had known it was modern (it actually had a bit of teenage romance in it which was totally new and a bit strange to me). The thing is, to get anybody to read they have to find something that interests them, which is why we read after all. My father, a big reader like me, mentioned how great it is to find a good book, a book you just cannot put down. I would say Harry Potter is one of those books because it portrays a detailed, realistic fantasy world that is not only captivating, but in a strange way one could join. The premise of the world of Harry Potter is that there is a world for regular people and then a hidden world for people with magical powers. Being realistic, people need to be taught how to use magic and thus children who possess this magic receive a letter from Hogwarts, a school set in a castle with tall towers, talking paintings, and small elves busily preparing great feasts. The reason people are so obsessed with Harry Potter is because the author understood what the young audience wanted and gave it to them. So yes, give your sister Harry Potter and I'm sure she'll enjoy it.

Now as I said, people read because it interests them so your sister would be more likely to pick up a book that is about one of her interests. For example, I love cats so when I learned of the books series Warriors by Erin Hunter whose characters were all cats, I was delighted and read through them nearly as fast as they could be written. Warriors is another good series and it seemed pretty perfect with vivid description, natural dialogue, and excitement. The group who goes under the name "Erin Hunter" also created another series, Seekers, whose characters are all bears. Seekers has many of the same pros as Warriors, just a different species and different plot. Next to those two, don't forget the classics. I quite enjoyed Through the Look Glass by Lewis Carroll and probably would have enjoyed Alice in Wonderland too, had it been I found an unabridged version. It is quite important to find a classic book written by the author because the charm of a book is more than just the events it tells, but how the author tells them. Another one I would recommend is The Hobbit. It is quite a captivating book and isn't difficult to read, so a 10 year-old can understand it quite easily (the movies might make The Hobbit seem like a complex fantasy story, but really it isn't).

Once she's read some of those, her interest in reading may come naturally that she might like to go to a library. Libraries are great because they have so many books and they're free too. If she isn't that eager, she might need to read more books and I'm sure if you googled "great books for kids" you'll find a list. Additionally, libraries are quite big on getting more people reading so a library website is bound to have a list of recommended books for all ages.

Now for a crazy idea. Give her a cookbook Not the kind of reading you meant, 'eh? :^) That was another reason I loved libraries: they always had an abundance of cookbooks. My mother likes cookbooks too because she likes to look at all the pretty pictures. I, on the other hand, like to use the recipes. Cooking can be quite fun and satisfying and usually all it takes is chopping, mixing, baking pans, and time. Allot of people think cooking is difficult but most of the recipes I read don't require fancy equipment or complicated maneuvers. Of course, because your sister is so young she'll need to be supervised and also I would give her a simple cookbook, say for desserts or something advertising "for kids". I'd imagine baking would be easier and safer for a child as things would just need to go into the oven instead of being stirred over the stove top. In any event, cookbooks can be fun to read whether it is to see how easy a recipe is or to look at all the pretty pictures (like my mother).

 

[Penguin-keeper]

Iza, does your sister get to see you reading a lot? As I'm sure we all know, the most important thing is for kids to see others in their life spending time reading - and it probably doesn't matter how many, just that people do so, as it tends to prompt an interest.

Harry Potter is a fantastic series of books. I was in my teens when it started, and once I learned of it I caught up on the first four books, and then eagerly anticipated the rest as they were written. In addition to what Knighttchi's Ballad has already said, I always found it genius how J.K. Rowling made sure that the series aged with its readers - each book takes place over the course of one school year at Hogwarts, so in each one the characters have grown up alongside those who are reading it. The first book is quite light-hearted with many adventurous elements (a perfect starting point for a 10-year-old or so), and the series then slowly grows into quite an epic!

When I was 12, I read Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson - I'd always liked pirate stories, and Treasure Island is quite simply the best in the genre. It's told by a young man called Jim Hawkins, who ended up as part of an ill-fated voyage to find buried treasure on a tropical island when he was a boy. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I revisited it recently, and found it to be every bit as enjoyable as an adult - I was also slightly surprised by it being a little bit more violent than I'd fully remembered! However, it was a pretty realistic depiction of the life of the crew (both the pirates, and those who were mutinied against, who had to try to survive), and the violence only tends to be in exciting action scenes (for example, there's a scene where a particularly dangerous man throws a knife at Jim Hawkins' shoulder, when Jim is trying to escape from him, and it sticks). It certainly isn't inappropriate for a kid who's 11 or 12 or so - it was written for the author's stepson, who as I far as I'm aware was around that age. It's also worth pointing out that it has some very unusual uses of English, so as to correctly depict the way that certain characters speak. I highly recommend it if there's any interest in pirates and seafaring!

There's also events like World Book Day to check out. This year, it takes place on March 1st, and it's now in its 21st year. People often dress up as favourite literary characters or organise other fun events to celebrate - perhaps a local library will be participating? The website should have plenty of useful resources, too! Here in the UK, they give out £1 book-tokens to school-children, which can be redeemed for any of a number of books that're part of that year's event. I don't know if this particular part of the scheme is carried out in other countries, but apparently the event is marked in over 100 countries, so there's certainly a chance of that!

And, for lighter reading that might well be a very good way to catch a modern youngster's interest, perhaps you could look into Free Comic Book Day? That takes place on May 5th this year. Every year, comic shops around the world give out special editions of comic books that've been made for the occasion, free of charge. Some of these are original productions, whereas others are based on characters and properties that kids might already know from elsewhere.

Comics can also be leveraged in another fun way: Making your own is a lot of fun, and then you can have just as much fun reading it back afterwards, too - after all, reading and writing go hand-in-hand! When I was a kid, you could buy kits that featured a blank book with pre-printed panels and blank speech-bubble and special-effects stickers, so that you could create something that actually looked pretty cool, even if your art wasn't necessarily as fantastic as what you see in professional publications. I don't know if anything like this is still made, but there must surely be downloadable printables online that could be used for the same purpose!

I hope that some of this was useful. It was certainly a lot of fun to write!

 

[Jhud]

There's one thing people have to understand and that is that not everybody has to like to read and reading is not really the most amazing magical thing in the world. Bad books exist as well. I personally never liked to read, and school killed this desire in me even further. Yet my creativity and literacy is just fine! I prefer podcasts and story-heavy video games, personally. So definitely don't force her into reading when she really doesn't want to, but if you think she just wants a little nudge, or doesn't want to read school books, then reading together should be fine. And if there are any cartoons she really likes then look for books related to these cartoons. Most media have books tied to them, anyway. Or try comic books or podcasts.

 

[Penguin-keeper]

There's one thing people have to understand and that is that not everybody has to like to read and reading is not really the most amazing magical thing in the world. Bad books exist as well. I personally never liked to read, and school killed this desire in me even further. Yet my creativity and literacy is just fine! I prefer podcasts and story-heavy video games, personally. So definitely don't force her into reading when she really doesn't want to, but if you think she just wants a little nudge, or doesn't want to read school books, then reading together should be fine. And if there are any cartoons she really likes then look for books related to these cartoons. Most media have books tied to them, anyway. Or try comic books or podcasts.

I have to agree with this, too. This is absolutely correct.

I can remember having some pretty terrible books forced on me as part of reading-lists, incidentally. That's never fun for anyone.

 

[Jhud]

Honestly, there's NOTHING that will make a kid HATE reading more than FORCING them to read. Trust me. Let them pick up books just because they want to. Offer them books, ask them what they like- that's how you can make them love them. Kids love to have a choice. Making something pleasant a chore is never the way to do it.

If they start reading a book but never finish it, that's fine, they probably weren't engrossed in it. Find them something better or finish reading with them.

 

[Iza]

Wow, these are some long and very interesting replies! Thanks everyone in advance and sorry if my english gets really bad because of the length of the text... it's not my first language.

@Knighttchi's Ballad (nice nickname btw): When I was a kid I loved them too. They're one of the reasons I got into history and archaeology... I even remember some scenes of them like I had seen them in the movies or in even in real life, although it was just my imagination. They have influenced me very much in the way I percieve the world. Some were boring, of course, or plain stupid or distressing, but many were just dragging me in their parallel worlds. I also wanted to be a storyteller when I'd grow up so I tried to memorise or write stories. I still love them although I don't read all the time anymore. I have a list of books (fiction and non-fiction) that I want to read, and it always fills quicker than it empties. I love historical fiction. I write almost every day, too. Writing is part of me, so much that sometimes I can't go on with the day if I don't write down some stuff that are on my mind. My father doesn't read much literature but he loves philosophical books. My mother generally doesn't read, but sometimes she has brief periods during which she reads non-stop, like one summer when she was given a novel about some byzantine emperor and then she loved it so much that she read whatever she could find about this period! My forum nickname is also the name of two favourite characters. Isabeau, the princess of Achaia and Iza, the neanderthal woman.

I get what you mean about Harry Potter. I never read this one but now I'm becoming tempted to put it on my never ending list, seriously. I can imagine the little one trying to turn branches into magic wands too, after reading it. xD I was thinking of giving her another series of novels about prehistory, The Earth's Children, but then I remembered there are too many sexual scenes in them for a 10-year-old. I think I'll go with Harry for now... I also agree about interests... but my sister is into ukulele and latin dancing and I don't think there are many books about those. I think it's not only about interests, but more about the general situation. When our parents were first separated I remember reading a book about a girl going through the same thing. Maybe I can look for books that picture something that she can identify with. As for classic books, when I was her age I didn't read many of them because in my mind they were classified as "boring things we have to read to become smart". Now I can appreciate them, but I still think it will be hard to find one she can connect with, mostly because they tend to focus on older people in older times. Not all, but most. There's much more varied selection of modern literature for children... In older times I don't think there was such a thing as "children's books". It was either grown-up novels or fairytales.

I think she'll like the library as well. There's something about the concept of borrowing that's very appealing, also there are so many books on the shelves that you can't help but take a look and explore. The idea about the cookbook is very cool too! I was reading all the cookbooks again and again as a kid, rating the recipes and the pictures. xD

@Penguin-keeper: Hmm usually my sister gets to see me reading when we meet, but we don't live in the same house. She lives with my mother, a bit outside of the city. But yes, what you're saying is very true.

Haha second vote for Harry Potter. I'm seriously starting to get curious about it too...

Oh, I liked pirate stories as well! Now you reminded me of Sebastian Darke... I hope I still have the series, although I think I've donated one or two of them to my school's library. I don't think she's very much into those things, but she may like it anyway, because she's kind of inpredictable. She's crazy and mischievous. Yeah, she could be a little pirate. As for comics, she had made some when she was 5 or 6... I might give her some Asterix, I used to binge-read them at her age, and laugh hysterically. Oh if I find them... Ok they're not very expensive anyway. I don't think there are such events here... We live in a small city. There was a book fair every summer when I was little and I used to go and ask my parents to buy me a whole shelf of books every time, but then the organizers had a fight and they stopped it altogether... I saw a poster for a creative writing workshop for children but my mother says she won't like it. I think she could, though. About a month ago she wrote a story about a traveling airplane. Why not. Haha of course it was useful and very interesting to read.

@Jhud: You make some very good points here and I admit I forget about it sometimes because reading and writing has been such a big part of my life. However, I know bad books exist, because I've tried to read quite a lot of them. Boring, sick, stupid, all of that at once... But yes, literature is just one form of art, just like visual arts or theater or music, and I'm not that much into painting for example. Also she already likes music, we play together very often too. I guess what I want to do is help her to keep some poetry in her life, in a broader sense, you know, to have an imagination, to be able to experience things beyond the surface. Sometimes I just forget there are many other ways to do this, since the artform I was always more connected to was literature.

I know forcing a child to read is gonna make them hate it, I've gone through that too, because there were some brief periods when I didn't feel like reading anything and I was forced to. Even when I felt like reading again, I was feeling so angry against my father for nagging me all the time that I couldn't do it. I didn't want him to see me reading and think he was doing the right thing by trying to force me. Now he's doing the same to the little one and he's making her hate books. This is why I'm asking for ways to make it appealing to her. I don't know if she will turn into the biggest reader ever, but I certainly think that the circumstances play big role in discouraging her from reading.