Reading Kids Books

It is pretty amazing to watch your kid grow from laying on the floor looking at the sky doing nothing into a full functioning human being. At some point along the journey, they stop relying on you for everything, and start doing a lot of things on their own. Only when they are much older will they truly be independent, but they get there over the first years of their lives as they grow - it is pretty incredible.

One of the interesting growth areas to watch in your child is their reading. You’re showing them picture books, then you’re reading board books, and then they’re recognizing letters, and before you know it they’re reading War and Peace (ok, there may be a few other steps along the way, but you get the idea). Working with your child on their reading is one of the important things you do as a parent.

For many years you’ll be reading to your child, but at some point they’ll set out on their own, at least to some degree. You won’t be reading books to them their entire life, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have to know what they’re reading. You can also have a strong influence on what they choose to read as well (outside of what they have to read for school, of course). You’ll need to know some good books though.

If you want to recommend books for your child to read, then you better get reading some books that they might enjoy. You can always use books that you enjoyed when you were younger to recommend to them, but you likely didn’t read as much as you should have. Beyond that, there are a lot of great books that have come out since you were young as well that they might enjoy even more.

Reading books for kids can be a lot of fun. There are some really great book series out there meant for a younger audience. Just because a book says it’s meant for young adults doesn’t mean it’s really terrible. You need to give these books a chance - your child might be reading them and so it’s a good idea as a parent to know what those books are about. Don’t be scared just because you’re no longer a young adult.

I’ve read plenty of YA novels over the years, and some have been really good and some not so much - that’s about the same as most other genres of books, so it’s really not that big of a deal. Some of the better books are the ones that aren’t quite as well known, but even some of the more popular series are good as well. Outside of actually reading the books you never know if you’ll like them or not.

Before I had kids, but when I was already married and into adulthood, I was able to get my younger brother (a teenager at the time) into reading. I recommended that he read the “Gregor the Overlander” series, and bought them as a gift on his birthday. He read those books and has been a voracious reader ever since. If I hadn’t read those books when I was an adult (even though they were meant for a much younger audience), he may have never gotten into reading as I wouldn’t have recommended them.

Read the books that your child will read. You never know what books you might find that you like, and you may come out of them wanting to read even more.