Children often read books assigned to them or study topics their teachers have chosen. But left to themselves, children often have intense interests they'd like to read about if they could put their hands on the right books.
Summer is the perfect time for pursuing strong interests and developing new ones.
In an ideal universe, schools would assign little, if any, summer reading, allowing kids to explore books on their own. And every parent would recognize that reading doesn't always have to be goal oriented. Reading for pleasure offers its own rewards, among them, that children develop a positive feeling about books and start on the path to becoming lifelong readers and learners. Kids Love , published in May by Ballantine, a companion to my earlier guides Great Books for Girls and Great Books for Boys . It describes more than 750 books for ages three to fourteen, arranged by high-appeal subjects like ghosts, computers and robots, insects and spiders, ballet, disasters and much more.