Seven Tips to Keep Your Kids Reading All Summer Long

Join us this Thursday, June 2, at 7pm for a LIVE Summer Reading Event for parents, where our children’s book buyer, Melissa LaSalle, author of WhatToReadToYourKids.com and the Instagram handle, @thebookmommy, will present her favorite new books for ages 6-16. The presentation will be followed by refreshments and the chance for some personal shopping time with Melissa, who promises to KEEP YOUR KIDS READING ALL SUMMER LONG! (We’ll have adult booksellers on hand to help you choose books for yourself, too!) Purchase tickets here.

For a peek at our Summer Reading Guide, click here.

Today, Melissa is sharing some tips to get your kids started on their summer reading journey.

Many of us credit our own childhood summers with igniting a lifetime love of reading. Throw in some Sun-In and a rainbow push pop, and spending time in the company of Ramona Quimby or Prince Caspian was a pretty fabulous way to pass hot, lazy afternoons. But how do we convince our kids to follow suit, given today’s busy camp schedules and the lurking enticement of screens? How do we make sure our kids don’t lose the reading skills they’ve been working hard to master during the school year? Even better, how do we translate those skills into a genuine love for reading where our kids will turn to books for entertainment without nudging from us?

Tip #1

Books at Arm’s Reach

Ensuring our kids have easy access to reading material is one of the simplest and most effective things we as parents can do to encourage unprompted reading. When they’re stretched out on the couch, complaining about being bored, they might not feel inspired to drag themselves upstairs to find their book, but they might reach for one that’s an arm’s length away. Consider this your excuse for messy housekeeping! In our family, there is no shame in the piles of books I strategically place on the kitchen island, next to the couches, in the car, etc. (I suppose one could use baskets.) 

This works especially well with books that lend themselves to picking up and putting down, especially graphic novels (like this!) or novelty non-fiction (like this!). And don’t forget picture books (like this!). Even kids who’ve moved into chapter books still have lots to gain from the rich vocabulary and gorgeous artwork of today’s picture books.

Tip #2

Scaffold the Starts

For many kids, the start of a book—especially a non-illustrated book—is the stickiest part. Once they’re into a story, they’ll start picking up that book of their own volition, but generating momentum is often the biggest obstacle, especially in a culture increasingly geared towards instant gratification. I constantly have to remind my children that the first 30-50 pages of a book is the slowest part, and I encourage them to hang in there before deciding to abandon ship. If they’re not hooked a third of the way through, by all means put it down and try something easier.

When my kids were in the early years of elementary school, it worked extremely well to scaffold the start of a book by reading the first few chapters to them. Once they were familiar with the character names and setting, once they could hear the voices in their heads, they were off and running on their own. As my kids have gotten older, particularly my young teen, I’ll sometimes scaffold the start of a book by inviting him to sit with me and read for 30 minutes. (If I set the timer, he knows I won’t make him sit forever.) The last time I did this, he didn’t move for three hours until he’d finished the entire book!

Tip #3

Model Reading

If you want your children to love reading, you need to actively create a culture of reading inside the home—and that starts with modeling what you preach. You need to make it clear that yours is a family that values reading, just as you might value hiking or playing team sports. When your children see you reading for pleasure, they are internalizing the message that reading is a satisfying way to spend free time. When my kids were younger, I’d leave them invitations to join me for a reading party. We’d make a blanket fort or pile on my bed and everyone would bring their own books. These days, my eleven year old asks me to have a reading party with her on weekends. We perch on opposite ends of the couch, our legs intertwined, and it’s my absolute favorite way to read.

Tip #4

Rewarding Reading

I get asked all the time for my position on rewarding reading. It can be a slippery slope, because we want children to learn to read for reading’s sake, not as a means to something else. That said, some kids are more rewards-driven than others (I’ve got one of those), so I encourage parents to experiment. I know parents who have had success with paying pennies for pages, and their kids have still developed an intrinsic love of reading. What I’ve tried to do in our family is reward reading with…reading! Finishing a book might mean an ice cream date, followed by a trip to the bookstore to pick out a new book. I also have what my kids call a “secret stash” of graphic novels, which I’ll pull out as a reward for finishing a non-comics book. (The latest was this.)

Announcing our Summer Reading Bingo Board! Stop by the shop to get your copy, and when your kid gets Bingo, they can bring it back in and receive a coupon for a free Jeni’s ice cream cone. (Now that’s a reward I can get behind!)

Tip #5

Limit Screens

All the time, people express envy that my kids choose books over video games. Guess what? THEY DON’T. Even the most enthusiastic reader has a hard time passing up the endorphin rush of screen time. This is not to say that screens don’t play necessary or valuable roles in our children’s lives, but only that if your child is given the choice, they’re probably not going to choose the more active work of reading over passive entertainment by screen. We’ve managed this in our house by having clear boundaries around when screens are available, and I try very, very hard not to pit one against the other with sentences like, “You can play a video game as soon as you finish reading.” In fact, if I know I’m going to offer screen time, I’ll offer that first. That way, by the time they settle down to read, they can immerse themselves in the page in front of them and not with half their brain anticipating the screen rush that’s coming.

Tip #6

Say It With Me: “Reading is Reading!”

I hear it in the bookshop all the time: a parent says to their child, “You can pick out a book so long as it’s a real book.” What they mean is not a graphic novel and not a book that seems too easy. But what they’re implying is that they don’t value their child’s reading choices. And a child who’s shamed for an activity that pleases them will be quick to give that activity up. As a parent, I’ve been guilty of this. But then I examine my own reading life. Do I always feel like reading Chekhov just because I can? Heck no. Especially not in the past few years, when life has felt extra hard and reading needs to bring more joy than work. Let’s not put expectations or pressures on our kids that we wouldn’t want on us. All reading material counts, including magazines, manuals, puzzle books, joke books, fact books, silly comics, you name it.

If your child is going through a graphic novel phase and doesn’t want to read anything else—let me guess: they’re in third or fourth grade?—lean in. Graphic novels are terrific books to invest in, because they are designed to be read again and again, across multiple years; they’re the gift that keeps on giving! If you still need convincing on the merits of graphic novels as real literature, try reading them yourself; you’ll be amazed at how rich, nuanced, and creative many of them are (like this). And if you’re interested in encouraging your child to read graphic novels and more—and they’re open to this (that’s key)—then consider illustrated novels (like this), novels in verse, or using graphic novels as reward books, like I talked about in tip #4.

Tip #7

Continue Reading Aloud

Want to entice children with the power of storytelling? Read to your children long, long, long after they are reading on their own. This is the perfect chance to expose them to all those books you wish they were reading but they’re not: the ones with the gorgeous language, complex characters, themes ripe for discussion. If you’ve fallen out of the habit during the school year, summer is ripe with opportunities for rekindling read-aloud time, from vacations to car trips to evenings around fire pits. And if reading aloud is not your thing—no judgment!—put on an audio book. The key is for you to enjoy the story alongside your children. (Pro tip: jigsaw puzzles go great with audio books.)

My favorite family read aloud of the year? THIS.