For the Love of Reading by Rick Chesler
As an author (thriller novels kiDNApped and Wired Kingdom), I’m often asked by parents, “How can I get my kid to read more? Did you read a lot as a child?” Yes, as a matter of fact I did. But the real answer is: I supplemented what they made me read in school with what I wanted to read. I didn’t necessarily enjoy what they assigned us to read in school. Sometimes I did, but not always. Reading what I wanted to read empowered me and made me feel like I can learn about whatever I want, not just what I have to learn. It also taught me the vast range of experience that words are capable of conveying that only reading Shakespeare or Fitzgerald followed quickly by Stephen King or Clive Cussler can do. So when I hear parents talking about how kids shouldn’t read a certain kind of book, or that genre fiction has no redeeming value, that they must concentrate on the classics, etc., etc., I think about how many kids are essentially turned off from reading due to their early experiences in school. Later in life, when they no longer have to read books, they don’t. There are plenty of competing activities, after all, such as video games, movies, the Internet, texting, etc. My point is this: if your kid likes to read Stephen King or Harry Potter books, then let them read that. Once they discover they like to read something—anything—then the act of reading itself becomes valuable to them above and beyond being a scholastic requirement. But if they never develop a love for reading anything at all…
Those are usually the ones who as adults will tell me something to the effect of, “I don’t have time to read,” or “I only read when I need to learn something or look something up,” or maybe even “What’s the point?” Granted, some people really do enjoy non-fiction topics and that’s what they truly like to read. No problem there. But for too many, reading is something to get over with as quickly as possible—and that only if Google couldn’t give them the answer first. And that’s among people who actually know how to read in the first place, something that can’t be taken for granted. Reading from an early age—for pleasure—is the antidote to this. Everyone is interested in something, so it’s hard to believe that every child can’t find something they like to read about. Associating reading with something they must do makes them think it can’t be fun. So if you do find your child reading something that maybe to you appears to have no redeeming value, let them read it. It may be the beginnings of a lifetime of reading for pleasure.
~Rick Chesler
rickchesler.com
Check out Rick’s Bio and more information about our featured authors on our Authors Page.
