By the Book

Get Your Child Reading This Summer

By Heather V. Long

"Once upon a time..." These four powerful words begin some of the best children's stories in the world, and most people have fond memories of being read to as a child, whether it was Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends or Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon. Reading with a child isn't just a gift for the child – it's also a gift for the parent.

"Encouraging parents to read to, with and by the side of the child is something I encourage," says Sylvia Maxson, an associate professor of liberal studies and English at California State University in Long Beach, Calif. "Perhaps if the parent is used to reading aloud to the child, then the child is used to that and enjoys it, [then] the parent might say 'How about you read some of it to me? You read this chapter, and I'll read the next?' [Parents] have that opportunity to suggest reading in different ways."

"I don't remember the very first book I read to the kids," says Heather Haapoja, a Duluth, Minn., mother of four and children's writer and editor of the Kids Need to Read Newsletter. "I started reading to them from the moment I could prop them in my lap to see the pictures, probably around 2 or 3 months old, mostly picture books with very little text, because keeping those pages turning really holds interest at that age. But it wasn't long before we were into longer stories. I remember reading chapter books like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to them as young as 3 or 4 years old, one chapter at a sitting."

"We actually started reading to our kids in utero, but not because we're weird or thought it would help them to be smarter or anything," says Rebecca Rohan, mother of Madeleine, 4, and Brendan, 3, in Buffalo, N.Y. "My husband used to talk to my stomach every night, but sometimes he ran out of things to say, so he would read. He'd usually read to them things like Dr. Seuss, because of the rhyming."

Want to see more?

• What's your child's favorite book? Tell us at the Recommended Reading List Discussion Board!
• Recommended Reading List
• Too Much TV?
• Ready, Set, Read!
• Book It: The Importance of Reading to Your Child
• Bonding With Books: Creating a Parent/Child Book Club
• Talk about it!!