Book Bonanza

When my kids were growing up, we lived in a little village in North Yorkshire. I had no car and the twice daily bus service to the nearby town made it challenging to go places. But living in a country village had a lot of benefits, not least the library bus. Every other Wednesday would find us scrabbling for our shoes, coats and books to return so that we could race to the library bus stop (all of 6 houses away) to wait for it. My kids would peer down the road, eager to be the first to spot the big purple and white bus. They would wait with excitement for the doors to open and clamber inside to choose new library books and get them stamped out. The librarian was great and always made sure that the bus was well stocked with new books that she knew the kids would love. I don't think that my kids ever got the same book out twice, unless by choice, in all of the four years we visited the bus. (And I take my hat off to anyone who can drive a big bus like that down the windy North Yorkshire roads.) Having waved off the bus, we would carry our new books home and spend the next hour curled up together on beanbags, reading and talking about them. We all loved these hours.

Sharing books with your kids is a great way to spend quality time together, to laugh and talk and have fun. It provides opportunities for stimulating your kids imagination, expanding their understanding of the world, developing language and listening skills and encouraging a love for reading.

Encourage your kids to choose the things they want to read. It does not matter if it is fiction or non-fiction, poetry, comics, cookery or picture books, if your kids have chosen the books themselves they are more likely to be interested in them. And don't worry if they keep returning to the same book, it is not unusual. My daughter chose "Peepo," by Janet and Allan Ahlberg, as her bedtime story every night for about six months and I can still recite the entire book from memory fifteen years later!

There are lots of different ways to share books with your kids, but here are a few ideas that you might like to try.

• Snuggle up close together, on a sofa, beanbag or comfy rug. If you can, turn off the TV or radio, it is easier to enjoy sharing books if there are no other distractions.

• Encourage your child to hold the book and turn the pages.

• Look at the front and back covers of the book. Draw attention to the title, illustrations, the author and illustrator's names and the blurb (on the back). Talk about what the book might be about.

• Talk about the pictures. Think about what they tell you. Look for details in the pictures that add humour to the story or give clues as to what might happen next.

• When you are reading aloud use expression and use different voices for different characters. Encourage your kids to do the same when they are reading aloud to you.

• Talk about the books as you read them together. Ask questions like,

  • “What do you think is going to happen next?”
  • “How do you think that character is feeling? Why do you think that?”
  • What did you find out from what we have just read?

• If your child is just learning to read, encourage them to understand the difference between words and pictures by pointing to the words as you read out loud. This will help your child understand that words have meanings.

• Try shared reading books, or parts of books. Read aloud together, carrying on reading if your child struggles with words. Shared reading helps your child to develop a sense of story, increases comprehension and allows them to enjoy books that they may not be able to read on their own.

• Share read along books together. A read along book usually has an audio CD of a narrator reading the text packaged with it. Play the audio recording of the text and follow along with it in the book. You can always make your own read along books by choosing a book and recording your own narration of it. Libraries are a great place to find read along books.

• Listen to audio books with your kids.

• Model reading. Read yourself and show your kids that reading is a skill that adults use too. If you are reading e.g. a recipe in a cookbook, an interesting article in a magazine, or the TV guide encourage your child to share it with you.

Top tip:

• Books do not have to cost a lot of money. Join your local library or check out community book boxes, car boot and garage sales.

And sharing books does not have to stop when your child can read. Read more challenging chapter or non-fiction books or together.

Model reading, share books and enjoy books together, help your child grow.

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