Lost in a Good Book: Children's Book Day 4/2/13

Guest blogger: Elizabeth Spiro, MA, SDA

My mother would call, “Elizabeth, where are you?  Are you lost?”  I would hold my book closer, hoping she would give up looking for me.  She was correct. I was lost -- lost in a good book.  I’ve always loved books.  I love stories. I love learning about the past, how things work, what other people think. I love walking into a library surrounded by infinite possibilities.  My favorite question is "Why?"  Books provide so many explanations, many that often contradict each other.

Introducing your child to a life-long love of books and reading begins at birth.  Read to your baby every day, every night.  Babies love poetry.  The old fashioned kind that rhyme.  They like nursery rhymes, sonnets, lyric poems like Hiawatha and The Raven, Shakespeare’s plays, Kipling, t s elliot’s Cats.  The words trip off your tongue.  I suspect the rhythm reminds the baby of the beating heart.   The easiest way you can help your child become a reader is to read to your child 15 minutes each day.

Toddlers love cloth books and board books.  Your toddler will be engaged by pages that have interesting textures -- things he can touch, move, look into or through.  As the two of you explore these books together, ask questions, point things out, draw your child into the page.  As you are having book fun with your child, you are expanding your child’s horizon, modeling questions and developing problem-solving techniques.  Ask open-ended questions (the kind that require more than a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer), teach your child there is often more than one answer.  When you read a book to your child, be sure to read the title: “This book is The Snowy Day, written and illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats.”  Point out the way books work (left page to right page; sentences going from left to right; each sentence starting with an upper case letter and ending with a punctuation mark; spaces between each word).

Picture books are a marvel.  The stories are engaging, the illustrations riveting.  I loved Margaret Wise Brown’s, The Runaway Bunny.  Both the story, about a baby bunny who wanted to run away, and the illustrations, with hidden pictures of him and his mother, captivated me.  My older son, Adam, was a “wild thing.”  He knew every word in Sendak’s story, and woe to me if I skipped one!  My younger son, Trystram, loved Watty Piper’s, The Little Engine that Could.  The slightest glimmer of the cover of a beloved picture book brings back memories: where you first heard it, your pride when you could read it yourself.

Your child can become an author and illustrator.  Have your child draw a picture.  Ask your child to tell you the story of the picture, and you can write it.  Read the story to your child.  Point to the words, as you read them.  Make simple books together.  Paste pictures of things your child likes on a page and have your child dictate or write an “I like …” book.  Your child will enjoy writing and illustrating an “I can” book, a “This is my” book…  Your child will experience the joy of writing and reading and may even get lost in a good book.

Elizabeth Spiro is the Early Childhood School District Administrator for The Guidance Center of Westchester.