Ideas for library visits with your child

“At the moment that we persuade a child, any child,
to cross that threshold, that magic threshold into a library,
we change their lives forever, for the better”

Barack Obama

My friend at Kinderbookswitheverything has written a wonderful information sheet of suggestions about using her school library.

Since this page is a paper handout I asked her if I could share some of it here.  I am quoting from her information sheet:

"It is often hard to know what to borrow or where to start borrowing when you encounter so many books (in a wonderful library). This handout is designed to offer you ideas about how to use the library to support your child reader; how to use the library to expand your repertoire of reading material; and how to step outside 'your reading comfort zone' in order to expand your child's comprehension skills."

Borrow books your child can read but also gather books that you can read to your child.

Plan your choosing:
Decide what you will take for example set a quota 'I will choose five books and you may choose five.'
Encourage risk taking as well as revisiting 'friends' (popular series).
At night you could say 'We will read one of mine and one of yours.'

What should/could you choose:

• Choose books that appeal to you. It is extremely hard to be enthusiastic about something you do not like yourself?
• Choose books that will appeal to your child. No one knows their interests better than a parent.
• Choose stories that expand their general knowledge and their knowledge of the world.
• Look for books that use a rich, and in some cases subject specific, vocabulary.
• Choose picture books as well as chapter books.  Remember not all picture books are easy, many have multiple layers of meaning and of course they have the added bonus of beautiful artwork.
• Vary the genres you borrow. Take a look at non fiction, poetry or biography. You could take a poetry anthology and read a poem each night.
• If you are bilingual, read to your child in your other language. 
• Read for yourself.
• Choose books from library displays. They are there to be borrowed. You might see books on a theme or books by one author or illustrator or perhaps about a current event.

“It is not enough to simply teach children to read;
we have to give them something worth reading.
Something that will stretch their imaginations-
something that will help them make sense of their own lives
and encourage them to reach out toward people
whose lives are quite different from their own.”

Katherine Paterson


Here are a few (a tiny sample) of my favourite picture books:

Blog link: http://momotimetoread.blogspot.com/2017/01/a-friend-like-ed-by-karen-wagner.html

Blog link: http://momotimetoread.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-bunyip-of-berkeleys-creek-by-jenny.html

Blog link: http://momotimetoread.blogspot.com/2012/03/man-whose-mother-was-pirate-by-margaret.html

Blog link: http://momotimetoread.blogspot.com/2015/02/mr-maxwells-mouse-by-frank-asch-and.html

Blog link: http://momotimetoread.blogspot.com/2018/09/shelter-by-celine-claire-illustrated-by.html

Blog link: http://momotimetoread.blogspot.com/2018/09/owl-moon-by-jane-yolen-illustrated-by.html

Blog link: http://momotimetoread.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-real-boat-by-marina-aromshtam.html

Watch the author read this book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ckm1c5N9EoM

Blog link: http://momotimetoread.blogspot.com/2016/12/mayfly-day-by-jeanne-willis-illustrated.html

Further Reading - Megan Daley (Children's Books Daily) will have a new book -  Raising Readers: how to nurture a child's love of books -  available next year. It is sure to be practical and well worth reading. Here is a link to her blog and the cover reveal.