Hello friends,
I am sure you all agree that the above quote is absolutely true. We all understand the benefits of reading and also we all want our kids to read!!!!
But, in this age of technology this becomes difficult for most of us. Here is my story of how my library helped me create a reader at home! I was not an avid reader but when I got into my teaching profession, my ideology and outlook towards reading changed completely. Thanks to the mentors (voracious readers) with whom I worked.
After my daughter was born in 2010, I wanted her to inculcate the habit of reading. I was absolutely clear in my head that I want her to become an avid reader.
In 2014, I started my own venture, Read’n’Grow – Mobile book library for kids. Thanks to my venture I had no looking back since my child was all the time surrounded by books.
After we started the library, house was always full of books. My daughter would help me to prepare sets of 4 books in each packet, level wise arrangement of books. Also she observed carefully how we decided levels – according to the age (and individual reading levels).
While helping out, she would take a bundle of books and go through them, and that is how my daughter fell in love with books! Not only that, she learnt to respect her books. Till date she has never scribbled on a book as she knows that these are not her books, but they belong to the library and other kids also read the same.
Love for books is the first and the most important step to Reading!!
My daughter Anika started enjoying books so much at that young age, that I remember there were days when she was unwell, or it was raining heavily outside – she would take a bundle of books and see them and comprehend stories with the help of pictures even if she couldn’t read at that time.
And now she is 9 years old, she never sleeps without reading.
Parents with small kids many a time ask me what is the right age for us to start reading? I always tell them there is no right age for starting something as important as reading. The sooner the better! It’s a fact, that in the west mothers start reading when the child is in the womb.
I am not sure if I have been a successful entrepreneur but my concept of library has made me create a reader at home.
Anika’s favourite series of books include Thea Stilton, Geronimo Stilton, Harry Potter, Wimpy Kid, etc. Listing some of her current favourites:
Thea Stilton – Big Trouble in the Big Apple
Thea Stilton – The Secret City
Thea Stilton – The Mystery in Paris
Geronimo Stilton- Get into Gear, Stilton
Geronimo Stilton – Red Pizzas for a blue count
Harry Potter – The Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter – The order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter – The half blood Prince
Sudha Murthy’s The Magic Drum and other favourite stories (thanks to recommendations on Kids Book Café’s fb group)
Vikram and Betal
Diary of a wimpy kid – Rodrick Rules
Anika is impressed with the book reviews on kidsbookcafe.com. I make her read them since she is familiar with most of the books featured. Inspired by them, she plans to post some book reviews of her favourite books too…
[Note from Team Kids Book Café: For your convenience, affiliate links (MARKED IN PINK) to some of the books have been added to enable you to buy the books from AMAZON, should you wish to! A very small amount of money comes to kidsbookcafe.com when you purchase a book via the amazon affiliate link provided (at no extra cost to you!). Do let us know if you’d like to buy some other children’s books that are not listed here yet, by writing to asha@kidsbookcafe.com.]
