Today I want to write about getting your child interested in reading. Some children are voracious readers. Whether they’re on the playground or at the dinner table, they always seem to have a book in their hands. Other children are the opposite. It seems to take a combination of bribery and pleading just to get them to consider reading a book.

The key to getting your child to be an active reader is to find books that interest your child. But how does one do that? A great starting place is to look at the kinds of activities your child likes to do in his or her free time. Does she like to play soccer and pretend to adventure in the backyard? Perhaps she’ll enjoy a Pelé biography or a book where the characters explore a new world. Does he like drawing animals and playing video games with puzzles? Perhaps he’ll enjoy a book with an aardvark as the main characters or a mystery book where the characters solve crimes with logic.

There is also the possibility that your child will be interested in a topic that he or she has not been exposed to yet. This is why it’s important to go to a bookstore or library and browse the shelves with your child. Your daughter may not have learned about satellites in school yet, but the second she sees a book on Sputnik 1, she knows she wants to read it.

We are fortunate to live in an age when there are a variety of online resources for helping you find books that will interest your child. James Patterson’s website, http://www.readkiddoread.com/, has book lists organized by age and content, such as real-world fiction and action/adventure. Another website, http://guysread.com, spring-boards off data from the U.S. Department of Education indicating that boys have scored worse than girls on reading tests for the past thirty years and offers recommendations to address the challenges of getting young boys interested in reading.

Regardless of the reading level of your child, with patience, dedication, and the use of available resources, you can get your child interested in reading.

Caldric Blackwell realized he loved reading when he read about a bunch of people (with single-syllable names) and their pets (also with single-syllable names) in kindergarten.

Exposure to a host of great authors while studying at the University of California, Santa Barbara inspired him to begin writing fiction. Although he began writing short stories for adults, he eventually migrated to writing children's books. His debut work is an early chapter book titled The Enchanted River Race. His next release is a picture book, The Boy Who Couldn't Cry Wolf.

Outside of writing, Caldric enjoys hiking, gardening, and playing a variety of string instruments. Caldric currently resides in California.

About the book

Six-year-old Byron Woodward is a werewolf who can’t howl. Determined not to embarrass himself after being chosen to lead a full-moon ceremony, he embarks on a mission to learn how to howl. He learns a lot about howling during his journey, but more importantly, he learns a valuable lesson about believing in himself.

amazon

barnes and noble