Ask Amy: How Do I Get My 8-Year-Old to Read a Real Book?

How can we get our reluctant readers to read a wider range of books? Here are some parenting strategies for getting kids excited about reading.

Jennifer asks:

"Any thoughts on how to get my eight-year-old son to listen or read anything outside his go-to genre?"

Although Jennifer doesn't specify, it sounds like the go-to genre for an 8-year-old boy is probably some books about gross bodily humor. But remember: kids have to learn to read before they can read to learn. At that young age, many kids are still working really hard to ingest information as they read, so they need something really engaging to make it worth the effort for them.

You can also view the problem as: at least they're reading, and that's good! Even if it's not as educational as you wish it were. Some parenting strategies for encouraging your child to read include modeling reading at home, creating a visual representation of how many books your child has read for them to see, and taking them to the library to get the full book-borrowing experience that many of us loved as children.

Amy suggests the "You Wouldn't Want To Be" series as particularly appealing AND educational for grade-schoolers... you can find those books here: https://www.youwouldntwantto.be/

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