When I go and talk to mixed groups like that of parents and kids together, one of the things I always try to talk to parents about is reading with their kids. We think of reading with your children of reading with the toddler with the toddler on your lap.
My idea of children is that when you have a child, you have this life-long reading group that’s built into your family. You have a way to share the books that are important to you. Once that your child starts to read, a lot of parents continue to read what they’re going to read and then their kid is reading on their own.
I think that’s an opportunity that is often missed that to read the same books and to discover some of the wonderful literature that’s being written right now in America. Some examples for older teens right now, The Hunger Games. I lent it to my 24-year-old daughter and she was up until 6:00 in the morning. You know, a book that kept me up.
Saying to someone, here’s a book that’s interesting to you. My son is in community college and just finished reading Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian — a wonderful book.
I read voraciously, but I often find that some of the most interesting works being done are for young people and that people are missing out if they just assume those books are for young people. That’s something that I think is very important for us as parents.
