How to Get Your Child to Love Reading: For Ravenous and Reluctant Readers Alike [Paperback]

Esmé Raji Codell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 6, 2003

Are children reading enough? Not according to most parents and teachers, who know that reading aloud with children fosters a lifelong love of books, ensures better standardized test scores, promotes greater success in school, and helps instill the values we most want to pass on.

Esmé Raji Codell--an inspiring children's literature specialist and an energetic teacher--has the solution. She's turned her years of experience with children, parents, librarians, and fellow educators into a great big indispensable volume designed to help parents get their kids excited about reading.

Here are hundreds of easy and inventive ideas, innovative projects, creative activities, and inspiring suggestions that have been shared, tried, and proven with children from birth through eighth grade.

This five-hundred-page volume is brimming with themes for superlative storytimes and book-based birthday parties, ideas for mad-scientist experiments and half-pint cooking adventures, stories for reluctant readers and book groups for boys, step-by-step instructions for book parades, book-related crafts, storytelling festivals, literature-based radio broadcasts, readers' theater, and more. There are book lists galore, with subject-driven reading recommendations for science, math, cooking, nature, adventure, music, weather, gardening, sports, mythology, poetry, history, biography, fiction, and fairy tales. Codell's creative thinking and infectious enthusiasm will empower even the busiest parents and children to include literature in their lives.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Codell (Educating Esme) has amassed an exuberant treasure trove for parents who want to help their children develop a love of reading. A strong believer in reading aloud, Codell gives an admiring nod to the work of Jim Trelease (The Read-Aloud Handbook), while presenting her own theory that interest (finding the right books for the child), integration (using reading as a springboard into other disciplines) and invention (when a child's unique ideas are inspired by the writing) can make the difference in how a youngster approaches reading. Codell, a teacher and librarian, resists grouping books by age level, explaining, "don't let somebody else's scoring system define your child, and don't let reading levels level your child's love of reading." Instead, she offers a simple method for determining whether a book is too difficult while pointing out that kids may listen on a much higher level than they read. The witty, comical "Madame Esme" (as she calls herself) offers scores of thematic book lists parents can use to inspire young readers, ranging from topics as diverse as medieval England to dinosaurs or hiccups. Covering a vast spectrum of subjects and authors, Codell casts a wide net as she builds a magical literary bridge between home and school. With appendixes of Caldecott and Newbery winners present and past, the book is akin to having one's own personal children's librarian at one's fingertips. Codell creates a contagious enthusiasm for the enormous value of children's literature, which will leave parents primed for their next trip to the library or bookstore.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Esmé Raji Codell is a teacher and children's literature specialist at an elementary school in Chicago. Her public radio feature based on this diary was awarded First Prize for National Education Reporting from the Education Writers Association. She is also the recipient of the Dr. Peggy Williams Award for outstanding new teacher in the field of reading and language arts, given by the Chicago chapter of the International Reading Association. Esmé lives in Chicago with her husband and son.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books; 1 edition (June 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565123085
• ISBN-13: 978-1565123083
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #178,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Esmé Raji Codell is the author of the acclaimed novel Sahara Special, winner of the IRA Children's Book Award, a Kirkus Editors' Choice for 2003, and a BookSense 76 #1 title; as well as a memoir for young readers, Sing a Song of Tuna Fish: Hard-to-Swallow Stories from Fifth Grade. A former teacher, bookseller, and children's librarian, she lives with her husband and son in Chicago. Sahara Special and Sing a Song of Tuna Fish Hard-to-Swallow Stories from Fifth Grade are also available on audio from Listening Library.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rx for Illiteracy, September 20, 2003

By 

F. Hamilton "[e-mail]" (St. Louis, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Get Your Child to Love Reading: For Ravenous and Reluctant Readers Alike (Paperback)

_How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_ was conceived when Esmé was staring at a shriveled potato that was sprouting eyes. She wondered, " . . . if I had a potato, nothing but a potato, how could I teach a classroom full of children? Well, I could cut a potato in half. (I can use the paring knife from my own kitchen, right?) We could review fractions. With one half, I could cut a design and do potato prints. We could plant the eyes from the other half of the potato (it can have eyes, right?) and grow more potatoes, charting their growth." The ideas cascade: writing a story about a potato, making a book of potato recipes or potato poems, making potato stamps of all the letters, teaching reading, getting books from the library about potatoes, talking about the Irish potato famine, writing letters to executives about potato chips or Mr. Potato Head.

The preceding excerpt illustrates the boundless creativity of author Esmé Raji Codell. On this first page she establishes the metaphor that recurs throughout _How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_: "Children's literature is our national potato." It is the seed that, through its many shoots, can help our children become caring, educated citizens.

Although the cover dubs _How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_ a "Parent's Guide," this book is a treasure trove for teachers, librarians, grandparents, anyone who cares about children and books. It provides "activities, ideas, and inspiration for exploring everything in the world through books." It is a valuable resource for nourishing juvenile readers, both the reluctant and the ravenous.

_How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_ includes over 3,000 titles recommended for children from birth through eighth grade. However, it doesn't stop with mere recommendations. As Esmé says, "This book is a recipe book for children's literature: how to serve it up so it's delicious and varied."

After a section on reading with "the littlest bambinos," _How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_ is organized by subject matter: social studies, math and science, story books, etc. Esmé subdivides the broad categories, however, so that book lists have very specific headings. She offers books for specific seasons, for special occasions (such as the arrival of a sibling or losing a tooth), for dealing with everyday problems (tattling or the hiccups).

Because the categories are so specific, many books are listed simply by title and author. That is sufficient. Sometimes Esmé adds just a word or two of description. For example, in the math section the note "place value" beside the title _The King's Commissioners_ is extremely elucidating. For some books Esmé provides sentence summaries. For others she provides more information, even excerpts. She provides just enough information to whet our appetites.

But _How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_ has so much more! Esmé's wisdom and revelry shine through on every page. Esmé includes dozens of articles, some on controversial subjects (for example, should reading be rewarded?). She has recurring features honoring "reading heroes" and addressing questions about various aspects of reading. She provides a list of benefits of reading aloud, a "Happy Childhood Checklist," a list of "Must-Reads by the Time You're Thirteen," six pages of story starters. She offers suggestions for integrating literature with life, often in celebration -- a parade of books, a storytelling festival, an unbirthday party. She recommends additional resources, many of them on the Internet.

Appendices and indices round out _How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_. The appendices include Newbery and Caldecott Award honorees as well as winners. Information about a specific book is easy to find since the books are triply indexed -- by title, author, and subject.

I am thrilled to have discovered Esmé Raji Codell. She is indeed an exuberant, eloquent young voice for promoting literacy through children's literature. _How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_ may well offer the best hope for stemming the current tide of illiteracy.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reading Resource Extraordinaire!, June 24, 2004

By 

Wendy Somerlot Bittel (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Get Your Child to Love Reading: For Ravenous and Reluctant Readers Alike (Paperback)

What a fun, cleverly written book! Codell's writing is inspiring as well as informative. She provides tons and tons of ideas for reading materials on all manners of topics from social studies to bath time. But she doesn't stop there! She also includes clever ideas to make reading come to life for kids. As an avid lover of resource and child education books, I admit I only own few but this one is a keeper. I would recommend this for parents of infants through early elementary students. If you are looking for reading material to augment your child's life experiences or classroom experiences, I believe this book would be a valuable asset. Happy Reading!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST HAVE FOR ALL TEACHERS & PARENTS, May 22, 2005

By 

Book in hand at all times "PEDAGOG" (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Get Your Child to Love Reading: For Ravenous and Reluctant Readers Alike (Paperback)

I purchased this book when I began my journey to become an elementary school teacher and I have never put it down. I have countless books that I accumulated in course after course throughout this experience, but I assure you that this is the only book that is DOG EARED. I even bought copies for all my friends who were becoming teachers. Every recommended "Potato Pick" has been wonderful as suggested, every author hightlighted has been fantastic, and Esme has also completed categories for any kind of theme you can think of for kids. In my children's literature course I just chose books I found in this book to read. I take it with me to all bookstores, Scholastic book fairs, ordering via Amazon dot com, or even the public library. Teachers need to but this book, pre-service teachers need to buy this book, and parents especially should buy this book to hook your kids to the most wonderful gift in the world...the world of reading and all the fantasy and fulfillment it can bring.