books kids love

6 WAYS to GET YOUR KIDS READING this summer

As a child, I remember racing out of school on the last day for the freedom of summer vacation, and would spend the following months outside reading in the sunshine. Of course, my son is a different story and when summer hits, reading tends to fall by the wayside. While books are abundant in our house, all the books he had to read for homework during the school year can make summer reading feel like extra work. If your kids are reluctant to read on their own, here are a few ways you can encourage them to turn off the TV and pick up a book this summer.

Area Woman’s resident Bookista, Megan Elgin

(pictured above reading with her family) serves you up with some great summertime reads. Search for Megan on GOODREADS or @meganann on LITSY and find out what she's reading now.

1Let them pick out their own books. It doesn’t seem to matter how many amazing books I bring home, my son is always more excited to read the ones he picked out himself. Bring your kids to the library or bookstore and give them plenty of time to browse for their favorites. Allow them free range to choose wildly and refrain from offering commentary unless they ask you for it. Reading is more fun if they feel free to choose anything that appeals to them. If they come up with too many to take home all at once, add the extras to a list so you can pick them up later. I have a running list of books my son has asked for on my phone to find later.

2Start a family book club. Book clubs don’t have to be about serious discussions and topics. Make it a fun family event complete with snacks and jokes. Kids love to voice opinions, so this is a great way to get them talking. Have a variety of reading levels and interests? Pick a topic and let each child choose their own book fitting that topic to discuss with the family. Mom and Dad should pick books too! Or, take turns picking the next book and help younger readers by reading the book aloud with them. Not sure where to start? Try books that have been made into movies. The number of movies that have been adapted from books is staggering and there is a good chance that one of your family’s favorites falls into this category. Oftentimes the book may be a little different than the movie and it makes for a fun discussion to see if everyone can spot all the differences.

3Look for books that match their interests. If your child loves sports or science or music, chances are there is a book out there that matches almost any interest they have. The options for animal lovers are endless, but the “Warriors” series, by Erin Hunter, is a time-tested kid favorite full of adventure, bravery and cats. Have a sports fanatic in the family?

Author Jake Maddox has titles featuring every sport imaginable and has written series for many different ages and reading levels. ↑

4 Join a summer reading program at the library. The Fargo Public Library offers the chance for kids to earn prizes and a free book as they track their summer reading. You can also create your own summer reading challenge and reward them for every five hours they spend reading (or set a number of pages depending on your child’s reading level). We all enjoy meeting a challenge and kids are no exception.

Listen to audiobooks in the car. Better yet, make sure you have a copy of the print book so your kids can follow along or keep reading once they are hooked if you have to stop mid-story. Laughing aloud together while listening to an audiobook makes long trips much more fun.

Find things to read that make them laugh out loud. Everyone enjoys a great joke or a funny story and kids books are filled with hilarious hijinks. Introduce your kids to Calvin and Hobbes, the Sunday comics, or a favorite funny read from your childhood. The “Princess Pink and the Land of Fake-Believe” series by Noah Z. Jones is great for beginning readers. Your kids will love these mixed up versions of fairy tales with stories like “Moldylocks and the Three Beards.” The books are part chapter book, part comic book, with speech bubbles amongst the illustrations making them perfect reads for struggling or reluctant readers who might be turned off by text heavy pages.

← “Fortunately the Milk” by Neil Gaiman is another hilarious read for the whole family. A father goes to the store to buy milk and takes an excessively long time coming home. The story he tells his children about why it took so long contains aliens, pirates a time traveling stegosaurus and one outrageous adventure after another.

Other Favorite Books

for the whole family:

“The Girl Who Drank the Moon” →

by Kelly Barnhill

Winner of the 2017 Newbery Medal and written by a Minnesota author, this middle grade book is a compelling tale of a girl who becomes “enmagicked” after being saved by a witch who then decides to raise her as her own. ←

“The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell”

by Chris Colfer

After receiving their grandmother’s heirloom fairy tale book as a birthday gift, twins Alex and Conner Bailey fall into the land of stories. While encountering many of the fairy tale characters they grew up reading about, the twins have to find a way to get back home. My family was completely hooked listening to this audiobook read by the author.