Last weekend The Vancouver Sun newspaper published an interesting article entitled “What do kids love most? Their parents reading to them.” Nick Vinocur reported on the results from a recent study that surveyed 500 children aged three to eight in Britain and found that half of the children said story time was their favorite pastime with their parents! Almost two-thirds of the children polled said they wanted their parents to spend more time reading to them before bed and 82% said reading a story with their parents helped them to sleep better. Storytelling ranked higher than television or video game amongst pastimes for kids and the best storytellers, according to the children surveyed, were mothers who used funny voices to illustrate different characters or made their own special sound effects to keep the story moving.

Child psychologist Richard Woolfson led the study and says:

The results of our research confirm the traditional activity of storytelling continues to be a powerful learning and emotional resource in children’s lives. It can be very difficult for parents to find the time to read with their children, but these moments can help build strong bond and play a vital part in their child’s development.

Click here to read the entire article.

I had to include the photo of my husband reading to our son Evan as it is one of my favorites and I still find it hard to believe that my first-born is now 12 years old. How time flies! Such fond memories…

Speaking of photos, don’t forget to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf for our Around the World in 100 Bookshelves project. You will be automatically entered in a drawing to win a selection of 5 age-appropriate books to add to your little one’s bookshelf! See the sidebar for more details.

Bookshelf #10:
Emma
8 years old
Belcarra, Canada

I took this picture myself. We have a lot of bookshelves in our house but this is a very important one because it is filled with books we will never give away. Some of these books were my mom’s when she was little but most were given to my brother and me and we want to save them forever. In our house, when we receive a book from a family member, they sign and date the first page. It is neat to look at some of the books and see the inscriptions. One of the books was given to my mom on Easter 1972 from my great-grandma and great-grandpa. Another book was given to my mom on the day she was born! The Paddington Bear books were my mom’s when she was little and they were the first chapter books that I read all on my own. The books about space and science are my brother’s and most of the books with dogs are mine. One of my favorite books is Just Dog by Hiawyn Oram. There are some books here that have torn pages or covers but we won’t throw them out because they are too special and they have lots of good memories. We keep our library books in a separate spot so that it is easier to find them when they are due.

Submitted by: Emma and her mom (Corinne)

For details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.

Today we are thrilled to announce the winner of our first “Around the World in 100 Bookshelves” book draw. The lucky child is 5 year-old Shashank, from Bangalore, India. Congratulations, Shashank! PaperTigers will be sending five multicultural picture books for you to add to your bookshelf! Please let us know what you (and your friend Mickey Mouse) think of the stories, when you’ve had a chance to read them!

So far, we have heard from The Philippines, Canada, the UK, US, Sweden and India. We want to see bookshelves from all corners, though, and to hear about the books that inhabit them, so please keep those photos coming! Your young bibliophile could be the winner of our next book draw, which will happen on Jul 15.

To see all bookshelf photos submitted to date, and to catch a glimpse of a world made smaller through books and reading, click on the “Around the World in 100 Bookshelves” logo, on the sidebar.

Bookshelf #9:
Addy and Elly
2-1/2 years old and 10 months old
Marlborough, United Kingdom

Submitted by: Sam

For details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.

Bookshelf #8:
Carlos Miguel
1 year & 7 months old
Manila, Philippines

Being a bibliophile myself, I would like my little boy to grow up around books. I would like to instill in him the passion for reading. Books develop and broaden horizons and for little ones, I believe that starting them young will help them as they grow older. I have taken snapshots of little Miguel’s own book collection. He shares a couple of shelves from me so his books will have their own places in the house. Being 1 year and 7 months old, his books range from coloring books to the educational/learning starter books such as the ABCs. The shelf above contains his coloring books, learning the alphabet and numbers books, beginner’s shapes books, board books of trucks, dogs and kittens, illustration books and flashcards with Barney’s photo, too. It also contains the kiddie books we bought from our MV Doulos trip.

This middle shelf contains his other mini board books and some glitter books. He also has some books featuring Winnie D Pooh and friends.

The bottom shelf contains his I Wonder Why books, a gift from his aunt. Also, it houses some baby-kiddie books meant for my reading.

As a mom, I am proud to say that he can now fully recite the ABC, count 1-15, recognize shapes!

Submitted by: Frances
http://ivan-ulrich.blogspot.com

For details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.

Bookshelf #7:
Clarke
4 years old
Los Angeles, CA, USA

My husband built and painted this bookshelf to Clarke’s specifications. It had to “look like a zebra.” Currently, Clarke especially enjoys reading Mo Willems’s Elephant & Piggie series, as well as the Dr. Seuss “Beginner Books.”

Submitted by: Candace
http://www.bookbookerbookest.blogspot.com

For details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.

Bookshelf #6:
Albin
12 years old
Stockholm, Sweden

This bookshelf belongs to Albin, who is 12 years old. As you can see, Japanese manga is a favourite… But also Cressida Cowell, Cornelia Funke and J.K. Rowling, as well as Swedish writers like Niklas Krog. Since I work in a library I don’t buy a lot of books for my children – we borrow them at the library instead. When I asked him which book he likes the best he thought about it quite a while and then said it was Airman by Eoin Colfer.

Submitted by: Anna G. Chen

For details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.

A recent addition to our blog is Around the World in 100 Bookshelves, where parents are encouraged to send photos of their children’s bookshelves, along with the name and age of their child. It is already becoming wildly popular, with snapshots coming in from all corners of the world, and I am always eager to see the latest bookshelf, or variant thereof–parents are quite creative in ways to store their offspring’s book collections! (My oldest son’s first books were kept in his little red wagon, which he was too small to use for conventional purposes.)

My reaction is curious as well as delighted, and comments from other viewers convey the same yearning to know what are the titles of some of the books in these pictures. And beyond that question is which of these titles are most requested as bedtime stories or daytime readalouds?

Which of these books does the owner spend time poring over, perhaps knowing them by heart? If they are owned by someone who can read the words, which of them is most read aloud to her parents or his younger siblings–or to a pet dog or cat for that matter!

Please tell us which books are most popular in your household? Which one can you recite from menory as you read it aloud to your child? And, while you’re at it, if you haven’t sent us a picture of your child’s library, we are eager to see it–and so are other parents around the world.

Let’s find out if a child in Bangalore loves the same book as a child in Brooklyn–and what books a mother in the Philippines most enjoys reading aloud to her children. The world is full of wonderful books and the children who love them–which are your child’s favorites?

Bookshelf #5:
Pranav
6 years old
Bangalore, India

Submitted by: Anandhi Yagnaraman

For details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.

Bookshelf #4:
Morgan and Alastrin
3 years old and 2 years old
Windsor, Ontario, Canada

This is a photo of my two girls’ bookshelf. We own more kids’ books than that, though. Some are in the living room, for easy access; others they aren’t quite big enough for yet, are upstairs in storage; and the seasonal books (Christmas, Easter, Halloween) are also stored upstairs, and only brought out during the season they’re about. My girls love reading books and will go in there and “read” for a good 20 minutes on their own!

Submitted by: Callista/Kathleen

For details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.