The Tiger’s Bookshelf: A Continuing Conversation
Posting a blog entry is like going to a party–you never know who you are going to meet or what kind of interesting conversations will come up. (And of course there’s always the dreadful possibility that you will be a wallflower and nobody will respond to you at all.)
The Tiger’s Bookshelf has been lucky. During the past two months there have been a number of rich, varied, and thoughtful responses to some of the blog entries that blend into a longer, continuing conversation.
Corinne and Michael Miller both pointed out that if you want your children to read, read to them and let them catch you reading, since they will model your behavior. Corinne also mentions the importance of making television and computers a secondary source of entertainment, with books being a family’s primary pastime and the library being a primary destination.
Sally Ito observed that a family can become its own book group, by “sharing the page.” Although all of different ages and with different tastes, her family is drawn together by the books they read aloud, and those shared books lead to the broadening of individual tastes–reading fairy tales to her daughter, Sally said, prompted her to pick up Italo Calvino.
Alison and Corinne both brought up the importance of a teacher reading aloud to a class, which is another form of book group, and one that brings together children of different reading abilities and different interests, uniting them in the excitement of a good story.
Holly decried the fact that books are so easily pigeon-holed into age categories, while so many books found in children’s sections of libraries and bookstores are ones that adults enjoy too. She applauded the idea of moms and daughters sharing books, which is an idea further discussed by Aline, who loves reading to her daughter and asked when is a good time to begin being part of a book group? Is five too young?
What do you think? Can a five-year-old be part of a book group? Can television and computer time become secondary to reading? Can adults and children, whether they are related by family ties or by reading tastes, discuss books together in a group, on equal terms as readers of the same book? And how has the reading that you have done with your children affected your own reading choices?
Let’s talk.
February 27th, 2008 at 10:35 am
I have been thinking a lot about what age is “right” for a book-club – and I would say that where kids and parents are in it together, there’s no reason for it not happening from the word go. Perhaps the input in terms of book-club communication might be more from the adult to begin with but maybe, as small people get older, they will be more ready to communicate their likes and dislikes as far as a book is concerned, if the network is already in place for them to do so. My older son, 9 1/2, is just going through a stage where everything he does with his friends at school seems to happen within the embrace of a club. At first I thought these were formalised activities but the teachers have nothing to do with it… I might suggest he propose a book-club… I know my younger son (7 on Sunday!) has been writing (short!) book reviews for an inter-school website. I think, with so much choice around, it’s an appealing idea to think that other familes out there might be trying out the same things and getting/giving suggestions too.
Well, I’ve rambled on enough… and I haven’t even touched on the computer-game spectre…
February 28th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Oh please send one of your son’s reviews. It’s so encouraging to know that a seven-year-old is expressing his book opinions in print! As far as children communicating their literary likes and dislikes, one of my fondest memories was talking to one of my father’s friends when I was seven about the Iliad and Greek mythology–and my youngest son reading Ridley Walker (by Russell Hoban) when he was eight and saying with great delight, “He spells just like I do!” I firmly believe that all children need is respect for their opinions and that proverbial level playing field to happily and vocally express their thoughts about what they read.
February 29th, 2008 at 10:19 am
My son is 14 now, and on his own volition is a dedicated reader mainly of Sports Illustrated now. (I hope he’ll go back to literature when he is older, but at least he’s reading something for pleasure.) He also does read a LOT for school, both fiction and nonfiction, and his “book reports” are well done. When he was little, we always read 3 or 4 books an evening. It wasn’t just the reading we enjoyed, I think, but also talking about the books. In my opinion, a book group of 5-year-old boys is very likely to end up being a building block group or wrestling match pretty quickly, but parents can still encourage small children to be engaged readers who will be better able to discuss books intelligently later in school — and later in life. My son’s kindergarten teacher encouraged us to talk about the books we read together after we read them. Pose lots of questions about the books, like, Why do you think this character acted like that? Or, What was your favorite part of this book? When you come across new vocabulary in a book, point it out. Use the word in another context. Try connecting real-life activities to a particular reading. If you’re reading a book with a giraffe in it, follow that up with a trip to the zoo. If you’re reading about a garden, go outside and dig in the dirt. As for the t.v. — just say no!
March 1st, 2008 at 2:59 pm
I agree with Jeannine about a 5-year-old-boys’ book club – where it involves them actually sharing a physical space – and part of me thinks that would be the positive side of a virtual book-club – but I can see that 5 may be a bit too young for that too, whether boys or girls – but not too young to talk about what they like/ don’t like etc with someone around them, – and that will then set them up for pooling ideas and opinions with others as they get older – and after all, they are growing up with an affinity for virtuality which we can only wonder at!
I do think Big Brother would get a lot out of sharing ideas with others out there. He did enjoy getting his book-reader badge for Cub Scouts but is starting to see himself as a bit eccentric that he enjoys reading. I’ve just posted his “review” for his first book in the PT Reading Challenge and he’s proud to see it there on the screen…
Yes, books just have to be a natural extension out of and into everything you do with small people – and sometimes that’s the activity of reading rather than the actual story-content, I suppose
, bath-books and buggy-books as well as mealtime, waiting around, morning, noon or bed-time books!
March 2nd, 2008 at 10:06 am
Perhaps with younger children, the idea of a “book party” once a month would be more enticing than a book group. What could be more fun than having friends come over, have something delicious to eat, play a game related to a book, and then talk about their favorite parts of that title? After all, what does a book group do other than that, basically. Then as the children get older, their book discussions would become more in depth examinations of what they’ve read.
March 2nd, 2008 at 2:07 pm
That is such a great idea – I wish I’d thought of it when I was running a mother-toddler group. It is the kind of activity I know schools have, maybe when rounding off a literacy topic/ book – and doing it as a home activity would help reinforce all the fun things that go with that. It’s certainly got me thinking!