As a child, my favorite part of summer was reading. I would escape to the cool, air-conditioned library and pick out an armful of books. Usually my sister Margaret would have baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies, so I would fill a bowl, pour a big glass of milk and get comfortable. I loved that feeling, after reading the first chapter, of knowing I had found a great book and had the rest of the day to read. Reading for pleasure takes time, and summer can provide hours to get lost in a book.
Summer also gives parents an opportunity to encourage their children to read for pleasure.
This kind of encouragement should start when they are very young and be consistent throughout their development. Recent studies have stressed the importance of reading to children when they are babies or toddlers. Reading aloud to young children teaches them to listen, prepares them for school, creates a bond between parents and their children and most importantly develops a lifelong interest in reading. When readers become too easy, parents can steer their children toward junior fiction. This section in our library gets much heavy use during the summer.