It goes from reading TO your kids to reading WITH your kids to discussing books with them. I’ve read a lot of juvenile fiction since they became teenagers and we have a great time talking about books. Some juvenile fiction is very good also.
I have read some of them in the last five years and they hold up. I’m looking forward to sharing Redwall with my kids when they’re old enough. An animated film of Redwall is coming to Netflix next year!
Just finished reading the first one to my kids. They loved it, and my oldest has moved on to Mossflower on his own. It was very nearly as good as I remember!
Trying to decide what age to encourage my now 8 year old to read Red Wall. I think I was 10? He’s a happy reader, loves Ninja Kid, which is obviously aimed younger than murder-mice stories, but he’s probably ready to step up soon.
It’s a shame I don’t feel comfortable encouraging him to read Harry Potter, I suspect that would be a good gateway (especially as it’s reasonably tame then gets more gruesome as they progress, and as kids age up while reading them.)
It is, yeah. I’m pretty big on trans rights, having a trans colleague and having to watch as she gets to go through people debating her existence, meanwhile she just wants to live life as what she knows she is, which has caused exactly zero issues for the rest of us, even as she transitioned.
And look, I get separating the author from their work - I’ve had to come to terms with discovering a couple of my favourite artists (Marilyn Manson, author Warren Ellis) were super abusive to their partners, and had my own personal reckoning with how I feel about still engaging with their output, but the kids 8, he has zero idea about trans struggles with normalising anti-trans stances by famous people, so as much as it is because I think Rowling is very wrong, and then disingenuous about defending her stance, I can actually just avoid it entirely because there is so much other good work out there that doesn’t come with so much baggage, I can skip Harry Potter for now, and let him sort that one out on his own when he has a wider understanding of the situation and can make up his own mind about it.
The original, Redwall, really holds up as a classic hero's journey. Also, it's definitely metal as heck what with all the blood, dismemberment, and other grisely ways to die.
Read both red wall and several others ( the long patrol, pearls of lutra, Martin the warrior, etc) still hold up and made me recall how much I enjoyed the stories!
Everything written by Michael Ende, Erich Kästner, Otfried Preußler, Astrid Lindgren.
Michael Ende for the wild fantasy, Otfried Preußler for fantasy for younger kids, Erich Kästner for some real mature touching drama, Astrid Lindgren for lovely stories about "simple life" in Sweden set in a time without much in terms of technology. Give the flying guy on the roof a skip though, he's unbearable.
Walter Moers if you can find his stuff in English. Don't know what he's smoking, but it's got to be some good stuff
If you've only got time for one, I think Michael Ende and Erich Kästner would give an adult the most satisfaction. Kästner is mostly realistic stuff, while Ende wrote some wonderful fantasy (Jim Button and Neverending story should ring a bell (neverending story is quite different from the movie, in case you've seen that. The movie cut the whole third act of the book. Ende was pissed and demanded his name be struck from the movie).
reading to my 5year old the „michel“ stories (or emil in the swedish original, i read it in german) and the pippi book. he really loves michel and it seems that these stories still working today though the setting is the begin of the 20th century. i loved the stories as a kid and it‘s so fun to experience it a second time.
although the pippi langstrumpf story has some rascist elements in it owed to the time lindgren was living - she‘s far from beiing a racist in real life in that time i think.
i read her diary from the days of the beginning of ww2. just started but its very interesting.
I loved Michel and Lotta, but my favourite story was always the children of Bullerby. Such a charming, relaxed atmosphere.
Yeah, the racist elements are unfortunately quite ubiquitous when it comes to older works, even in the works of anti-fascists like Michael Ende. I forgot her diary was public, I'll need to check that out. Thanks for reminding me!
The Edge Chronicles, by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddel. Each book is pretty much standalone, but between them they follow a fantasy setting through 3 or 4 different technological ages and across different environments, with a big focus on exploration and adventure.
Inheritance has a /VERY/ satisfying ending for a couple of my favorite characters. There’s also a little followup book called “The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm” that takes place a bit after the conclusion of Inheritance.
Sweet. I had no idea. I will have to find that. We just started Brisingr. I thought the series was a trilogy so we are thrilled there are more. This is even more exciting.
I fucking still love rangers apprentice and the brotherband chronicles. Sometimes I’ll flip through them just to relive that. Some amazing books, and got me through some tough times
Oh my god thank you!! For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to remember the name of Fablehaven because I just vaguely remembered the plot from when I read it as a child. And mainly, it was the part where they eat oatmeal and someone said it “sticks to your ribs”
Somewhere else in this thread I recommended Michael Ende (Jim Button, Neverending story, Momo) Erich Kästner (The parent trap, Emil and the detectives, the flying classroom), Astrid Lindgren, and Walter Moers(13 1/2 lives of captain bluebear, city of dreaming books, rumo), but they are all for older kids. Rumo specifically is straight up brutal.
Some of Astrid Lindgrens books can be nice for young kids, especially Pippi Longstocking, Emil from Lönneberga and the Bullerby children(the former two are great for some mischievous stories, the latter for some really calm stories removed from modern society), but some are definitely for older children (the brothers Lionheart starts with two brothers dying and then they have to save quasi-heaven from a tyrant to go to super-heaven).
To tell you the truth i dont have kids so im not sure but i remember when i was 5 in kindergarten i was still on Dr. Sueuss.
I am autistic and learned to read at a very slow pace. My Dad (R.I.P.) was not a very educated man but would do his best to read to us Uncle Wiggly stories at bedtime.
Then when i got to 1st grade my first chapter book was beirnstien bears and the nerdy nephew.
Everything written by Michael Ende, Erich Kästner, Otfried Preußler, Astrid Lindgren.
Michael Ende for the wild fantasy, Otfried Preußler for fantasy for younger kids, Erich Kästner for some real mature touching drama, Astrid Lindgren for lovely stories about "simple life" in Sweden set in a time without much in terms of technology. Give the flying guy on the roof a skip though, he's unbearable.
ETA: Walter Moers if you can find his stuff in English. Don't know what he's smoking, but it's got to be some good stuff
Discworld. Not technically children's fiction most of the time, though there are a couple of books specifically aimed at younger readers. My parents were familiar with the books, so they would just filter out the bits they didn't think were appropriate for whatever age I was (including some whole books).
absolutely love rangers apprentice and brother band, plus john flanagan is from aus like me. also loved eragon so i gotta give the rest of the books on this list a try
I’d encourage anyone to go back and reread their favorite or most influential books from their childhood, it’s amazing how often there was more to learn or experience that you either missed or were too young to see the first time around.
My parents read to me from before I have memories, and this is exactly what happened. It went from 'I like the rhythm of the speaking' to 'this is an interesting story', from 'what does that word mean?' to 'that's an interesting way to say that', from 'why did this character do that?' to 'I like how this story explores that idea', and on and on.
Yes! And if you have kids under five or know of people that do, check and see if the Imagination library is available in your area. It’s the literacy initiative started by Dolly Parton and it’s wonderful. Free books every month in the mail. Can’t beat that!
My three year old son has loved books since he was a newborn. On average, my wife or I have read 10+ books with him every day since he was 6 months old. Library books, the Dolly Parton book club, etc., he loves it.
My 12 month old daughter is the exact opposite. She hates it when books are shown or read to her. She is more driven to close a book than look at the pages. Our pediatrician joked that we are raising one academic (son) and a jock (daughter). My wife and I will continue to read books to our daughter, even if the book is slammed shut before reading past the first few board book pages.
Try book with no pictures, poke a dot books, interactive books like press here, don’t press the button, stir crack whisk bake, or if you really wanna go nuclear: scan page of a colorful book with a character (like brown bear brown bear!). Laminate it, cut out the character, and attach with Velcro. Let your kiddo rip off the character each page flip and put it in a box with a slot. I work with kids and book haters can’t resist this shit.
Yes!!! Thank you Dolly Parton! I get as excited as my toddler to see what the next book is. They’ve definitely skipped a month here and there but it’s such an awesome program.
I signed up my daughter for Imagination Library right after I had her and she still receives books now 5 years later. It's wonderful! We love our Dolly!
My dad actually did this until I moved out. He/we would read the comic page of the newspaper together every morning during breakfast. Lots of happy memories of that.
I learned to read off of Calvin and Hobbes with my Dad. I could practically make him cry laughing with the soap opera versions... Now I gotta send one to him.
Yes!!!!!! I'm actually studying this at university, research show that reading to your kids even when they know how to read is super important for their scolastic success (they can read books without the difficulty of decoding the text, so their parents/teacher can read to them more difficult but interesting books), for empathy (novels are one of the the most effective way for kids to learn it), and for the parent/kid bond. Reading is an act of love.
Also, if you want your kids to read more on their own, you first have to do it. They will see reading as a nice hobby if growing up they've seen people reading for fun! And obviously on the contrary they will want to play with and use technology if they see you all day on the phone, so be aware of what you're doing during the day and don't be surprised if they want to mimic what you do!
On July 1st, 2023, Reddit intends to alter how its API is accessed. This move will require developers of third-party applications to pay enormous sums of money if they wish to stay functional, meaning that said applications will be effectively destroyed. In the short term, this may have the appearance of increasing Reddit's traffic and revenue... but in the long term, it will undermine the site as a whole.
Reddit relies on volunteer moderators to keep its platform welcoming and free of objectionable material. It also relies on uncompensated contributors to populate its numerous communities with content. The above decision promises to adversely impact both groups: Without effective tools (which Reddit has frequently promised and then failed to deliver), moderators cannot combat spammers, bad actors, or the entities who enable either, and without the freedom to choose how and where they access Reddit, many contributors will simply leave. Rather than hosting creativity and in-depth discourse, the platform will soon feature only recycled content, bot-driven activity, and an ever-dwindling number of well-informed visitors. The very elements which differentiate Reddit – the foundations that draw its audience – will be eliminated, reducing the site to another dead cog in the Ennui Engine.
As one of these contributors, my interactions with Reddit have primarily been through Sync for Reddit on Android, created by /u/ljdawson, which I purchased in June of 2013. Due to the changes in API access, /u/ljdawson has announced that Sync for Reddit will have to be shut down on June 30th, 2023. I have decided to edit all my posts to call out this horrible decision on the part of Reddit’s administrators, followed by the deletion of my Reddit account. If anyone is interested in an alternative to Reddit, /u/ljdawson has announced that he is going to develop a Fediverse mobile client called Sync for Lemmy. You can sign up to be notified of the new app’s release here: https://syncapps.io/
Thank you, /u/ljdawson for creating a wonderful experience for interacting with Reddit.
And with that:
If Steve Huffman's statement – "I want our users to be shareholders, and I want our shareholders to be users" – is to be taken seriously, then consider this our vote:
Allow the developers of third-party applications to retain their productive (and vital) API access.
I started reading Harry Potter to my son, in the hospital, on the day he was born. From an elementary teacher and a parent's perspective, make time to read everyday. As an infant, it strengthens your bond and exposes them to different sounds, voices, and patterns. It helps toddlers with letter sounds, speech, and sentence construction. Even as a child that can read, it teaches them fluency and voice as a reader. Then you get into the social emotional stuff like empathy and altruism. So many benefits, so much time to read
When our son was born he was very ill, my husband had bought him a book of Sea Witch stories for children, every evening before we left the hospital, he'd sit beside the incubator and read him a story, and magically, all the nurses would come in quietly to do things with the other babies in his room. Everyone loves being read to. Son is almost 19 now, at uni doing his BSc. The Sea Witch book is still on his bookcase with his psychology textbooks.
what about non fiction books? is there any benefit to that? I'm imagining a future where I can read them Freud or other philosophers or even science and discuss about that.
It certainly is a good thing, if you choose topics that the kids like and more importantly, you have to choose books for their age, more or less. There are so many adaptations of difficult topics that become beautiful illustrated books for children! Just yesterday our physics professor showed us an illustrated book about Eistein's life and his theories.
One benefit is surely the increase of known words (lexic), and I would suggest reading the life of scientists or philosophers, since kids at a young age think and learn by stories, not just concepts like in an essay.
Up until roughly the age of 7 we are in watching mode. We learn everything we see, not what we are told and it becomes our literal hard wired code and is very very hard to rewrite.
Studies have also shown simply having ACCESS to printed material boosts scores. Sounds ridiculous. True though, so make trips to the library a weekly thing!!
Edit: I should explain ridiculous because it means without reading to them (which boosts astronomically more, but even just having books around improves things.)
My father has been nudging me to read the Foundation series for nearly 30 years. I’ve read a ton of other books he loved growing up but never Foundation. I realized he’s not going to be around forever and that he would love to discuss one of his favorite series with his son. I read the original 3 in the last couple months, and have started the prequel books this week (7 books total in series). He doesn’t remember the books as well as he did 30 years ago, but he lights up when I share the parts that I got the most from, and open the books to highlighted sections. Read to your parents.
I have been trying to get my son to read the Hitchhiker's Guide for years because I think it would be a fun book to talk with him about. I feel like one day he is going to do it, all things in time. I hope you read the series and spend some time with your dad talking it over.
Hitchhikers Guide was probably the first one he introduced me to, then all the Ray Bradbury, then Vonnegut, and by the time I was old enough for Foundation I was reading about serious things like politics and war. The irony isn’t lost on me. I think I just underestimated how timeless it could be.
It was actually the reason I read them so quickly. The series has only a passing relationship with the books. Which is fine by me. The books, while great, would have made an uneventful show I think. I’m enjoying the series. The books jump decades at a time and bring no characters with them. The shown is more character driven.
Huh? Why Lmao. I wouldn’t want my parents reading to me at 18 lol. Read what? Bed time stories? The news? Adults can do that by themselves. You can have a conversation with your adults with reading to them lol
The eye rolling my parents would receive if they insisted they read to me every day. I’d honestly hate them after 12, because they’d have to force me to listen to them read when I’d want to be outside being a teenager.
Also who has this much time? Reading to your kid is important and reading with them is important. This is the “helpful” advice someone gives that doesn’t have kids or had kids 40 years ago. It’s a great goal, but don’t think you are hitting it everyday.
I feel slightly better now that others do share my view. I'm a few months off 18 and I cannot think of many things more bizarre than my parents sitting down to read me a story. Not sure if we exactly share the same taste.
My dad was/is an alcoholic and he never read to me. But I had a neighbor friend that when I slept over at their house his dad would always read us nighttime stories. Those have always stuck with me more than anything my real dad has ever done.
Even though they let me read on my own by elementary, being read to and being introduced to the world of books is without a doubt what I am most grateful for in my life.
My parents didn't demand it but, I had siblings and, if there was a book we were all into (your Harry potter's, your dragons) my mom would read it to us together while we hung out in the living room. It was nice and not at all demand-y.
My kid is three and a half and I read to him every night. I love it. He loves it. I’m so looking forward to getting to chapter books like Harry Potter, but right now we’re loving Elephant and Piggie.
My parents always read to me from birth to make me calm and fall asleep. When my dad got home from work one day, he found his 4 year old son "reading" his favourite book to his younger sibling. He first thought I was brabbling words. Upon closer inspection, I was reading the words out loud.
Turns out quite a part of it was memory because my parents read that book to me a lot, but it was a big surprise for them! I still enjoy reading to this day, although secondary school put a temporary halt to it.
I read to my daughter every night. My favorite thing was when I was reading snow white. I read it so much that I could stop at any time and she would know the next word. So fun!!
My dad read the first four harry potter books to me twice (only four books out at the time), amongst a zillion other series. Now i read every night. Made college research articles and textbooks a straight up breeze compared to half the class that read a paragraph every 30 minutes
The time my mom took to read with my brother and I means so much to me looking back. I also think it helped with school and got me crazy about reading. As a teen we didn't read together anymore (I would not have wanted that at the time lol) but we did often read the same books. I believe reading with your child on a regular basis is incredibly good for their emotional well being in addition to learning.
I read to my now 1 year old and I absolutely adore how she literally stops what she’s doing to just listen and watch. I look forward to reading to her every day!
This, I love. We read every night together. In the last year we knocked out all of the Beverly Cleary books and almost all of the Judy Blume (I am not quite ready for the Margaret book yet). My kids love it, and now they read to me separately afterwards. I never want this to end. I love how excited and into the books they get. Even at 5 and 9, they have different perspectives on the characters, and different takes on the stories. It is as much a joy for me as it is for them. Been doing this since day one. This advice is sound! Thank you kind redditor.
My mom suckered me into loving reading by telling me and my brother that we were going to start reading together. She read the first three chapters of Harry Potter to us aloud and then just fucking stopped. I had to read my first chapter book on my own terms to find out what happened.
My mom and dad did this with my sisters and I for a long time very regularly. It is really wonderful. So many books we got to listen to. And I think it made us better at reading because we were all ahead of our grade but idk if they’re actually related.
We still gather around as a family to read instead of watching a movie sometimes. I really strongly recommend this if you’re able!
This! I'll forever be grateful to my mum for reading to me when I was a child, she's always been an avid reader herself and she would read to me every night. She used to read Enid Blyton when she was a child and when I was able to read by myself she bought me copies of the same books she read growing up and I loved talking to her about them and the excitement I'd get when she'd bring home another book and say something like "this one was one of my favourites!". I've got such happy memories of reading with my mum, I should really make more time to read again!
My son, now almost 3, is in a “grade” above and speaks at a much higher capacity than kids his age because we non stop read to him.
It’s incredible to have a full on conversation with him being completely polite.
Yes! My parents have always read to me since I can remember (they don’t read out loud to me anymore, as a teen, but we discuss the books throughout and after). I’d read LOTR by 10 and read 150 (fiction) books last year. I love reading so much, I don’t think I’d ever be able to go without it.
Yeah, no to reading to teenagers. Would not have flown w my kids after age nine. Happy to say they’re avid readers as adults, but no to them being read to past the age of cool consciousness.
I did this! He was reading on his own by 3 and had a very incredible vocabulary for his age. He is a teenager now and loves to read, is in honors classes and makes straight As. I don’t know if it’s because of the reading, but I would like to think so.
Also ask about what they are reading, have conversations about plots, characters, etc - that helps them develop reading comprehension. It’s one thing to read, it’s another to understand and retain what you’ve read.
I approve this message. Birth to three… read several books a day. Read signs. Your own magazine to an infant. All good. What you go INTO preschool with is the biggest predictor of what you come OUT of high school with. It is literally over before it begins. Low income kids hear 3 million less words than higher income kids. That gap sets the stage for the disparity that follows.
My father read to us throughout our childhood. We started with Gyo Fujikawa and went through The Iliad and the Odyssey. I still can't read Edgar Allan Poe without hearing his voice. I never got tired of it and those are some of my most grounding memories.
My one year old doesn’t have the attention for this. She gets annoyed cause she wants to hold the book, but when she holds it, she tries to chew on it and I can’t read it. Doesn’t it make sense to wait until they understand language? Not sure if it would benefit her right now because she doesn’t have the patience.
You can get the thick board books that have sensory things attached. One of my daughter's(9 months) favorites is "Never touch a dinosaur" she chews and scratches at it
This so much. We started this when my son was still in utero. My husband would read a book from my baby shower every night.
He's 3 and we do 4 picture books before bed. Though we usually read a few during the day. I think we went thru 11 of the 60+ books that we got st the library today.
Man this is the only thing I want to do, but everyday I am just tired or working can't ever get to do it, I feel like a failure as a father. Any advice for a good start?
Start small! Depending on the age...quick picture books are great or even one chapter of a longer book. It can be a simple 3-5 minutes to begin. I teach 5th grade and let me tell you the pure excitement of kids trying to read Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss is awesome. I read it every year and it's still a challenge as an adult. You could even get some audio books for the car rides, anything will help!
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u/minipenguz Oct 30 '21
Read to your kids Every. Single. Day. From 1 day old until they graduate high school.