Amanda Craig on Raising Children Who Love Books

Kelly Herold in her blog Big A little a just had a nice post about a Times Online article by Amanda Craig on raising children who love books. Kelly, like me, is an adult fan of children's literature. She has lots of posts and links about children's books on her site.

Amanda Craig is a London novelist and children's book critic. Her website contains an extensive list of children's book recommendations, categorized by age.

Today's London Times article is a wonderful discussion about why parents should want their children to love books, and how to help this to happen. A couple of my favorite quotes from the article include:

• "Children who have learnt to love books are never bored — how could they be, plugged into some of the greatest entertainment of all time?"
• "Buy, don’t borrow, any book your child enjoys because you’ll be reading it dozens of times. It will be one of the best investments you will ever make."
• "Read to children long after they have become confident readers ... Don’t punish your child for learning to read by withdrawing that half-hour spent together before bedtime.

and finally...

• "Apart from unconditional love, a love of reading is the single most important thing you can give as a parent. Children will know more, have more inner resources, more curiosity, more sympathy, more delight in being alive."

You get the idea. But read the article yourself for more details. It's an excellent, concise reminder of why we should want children to love books, and some ways to accomplish this important goal.