“All the books you bring home for me suck,” said my fifth grader one day when I suggested she do a little reading. After I pointed her towards all of our book shelves or even her own school library, I heard all of the reasons why those books were also unworthy of her time.
Lovely.
She’s fallen off the reading wagon. It is not prioritized in her classroom and hasn’t been “homework” since the winter. My third grader, who has regular reading homework often points out the unfairness of the situation. I tell them it’s “mom homework” and ask them all to read.
I’m a reading teacher and only my kindergartener is happy when I call for quiet reading time. I’ll take that win but won’t settle for only one real reader in the bunch.
I remember years ago, during a staff development day, Mary Ehrenworth telling us to just leave books around the house. Find the things that they’re interested in so they can just so happen to find it on the coffee table.
So, one day a few weeks ago, determined to turn this situation around, I marched into our school library and collected books I knew were popular with the kids at our schools. I got a variety of genres and authors. I checked the books out and marched out of the library armed and ready.
Later that night, I casually mentioned the stack of books sitting in my bag. The girls were all interested to see what I had chosen. Each walked away with a book in hand…a book that Wren has even found unprompted time to read.
Last night, Rose came into my bedroom pouting. “I don’t have any nonfiction books that will teach me about giraffes.”
“Write me a post it,” I said. “I’ll see if our library has some.”
Sure enough…our school library is turning out to be a treasure for my own children. Thank goodness for well stocked libraries.
Where There Is Joy 
It is hard when kids are not surrounded by books at school to keep the love of reading going. They are lucky to have you as a topper upper!
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THnaks for reminding me that Mary has the best advice! So glad you took time to follow it and of course you can thanks to a well-stocked library!! Lucky daughters!!
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Your sentence: thank goodness for well-stocked libraries…..makes me appreciate libraries that do have such a wide variety of books for ALL interests. The well-roundedness of people depends on the access to a wide variety of books – – a well-stocked library! Your opening paragraphs made me chuckle with the honesty of your kids and falling off the reading wagon.
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I agree thank goodness for libraries. I’m glad your bag of books met with success! Way to go, MOM!
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Isabelle always has too many books and too little time to read. I’ve built it into her afternoons that she has 30-60 minutes for independent reading time. While she still asks, “How long should I read for?” I know she enjoys doing it since she has ultimate choice.
For Wren, have you tried pairing a printed text with an audiobook from the library? It is a strategy I learned from Colleen Cruz that Isabelle uses to help her access books she might not be able to read independently because of her Dyslexia. It takes some of the pressure off when she’s reading and I’ve found that she reads beyond the allotted amount of time when there’s an audiobook paired with a printed text. (You could do it with an ebook on Libby too.)
We make good use of our library. (Ari, in particular, likes to make note of how much all of the books would’ve cost us if we bought them since it’s printed on the bottom of the receipt.) In fact, Isabelle and I have three library cards: one for our county, one from the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, and one from the Free Library of Philadelphia. We have lots of boook access beyond what is local. Do any libraries in CT offer that?
Happy to bounce more ideas around with you off-line if it’s helpful. I can relate to the reluctance that stems from independent reading not being prioritized at school.
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Thank you for all of these tips. We definitely plan to get back into a better routine of reading in the summer and also for getting to the library more often! She loves to read when she makes the time for it.
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I don’t know which I liked more- your slice, or your post it? So glad to see libraries are still both serving a purpose, and also in existence. Worried that screens/ebooks will replace them. It does seem ludicrous that a screen could replace that cavernous, and inviting place where there are overstuffed chairs and hundreds of titles. Or even that a screen could compete with a place where one can hold any book in their hands and gaze curiously at the title, the pictures or even read a page or two.
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She’s fallen off the reading wagon. We all fall off the reading wagon which makes what Wren is going through real. It is better when the school priorities and home priorities match. When they don’t, it’s hard, but everything in life goes in waves. I know Wren will back on the reading wagon in no time!
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Libraries are the best!
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Yay, Jessica. I’m glad they each walked away with a book to enjoy. You are laying a foundation, and through the ups and downs of their interest, the foundation will remain.
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My 9th grader has nearly stopped reading, too, and I’m struggling to get him going again. Something about his English class this year stopped him cold – or maybe that’s not fair, since I know his English teacher was excellent – maybe it’s his suddenly busy social life. At any rate, I feel for you & I am impressed with your stacks of books. To me, this argues for classroom libraries as well as school libraries. My students are more likely to read when the books are *right there* – though, to be fair, I have precisely zero books about giraffes.
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I fall off the reading (and writing) wagon at times. It’s OK. As long as there are always opportunities to find a good book, everyone will be OK. I always found reading aloud to be a hit with my kids. They just couldn’t stay away from hearing a good book. I’m sure you are doing that too!
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