Book Clubs for Children
~ Choosing Books

Let's get your child interested in book clubs for children! 

Every mother (and father too!) wants their child to become a good reader. In this world full of video games, computers, and reality TV it's almost impossible to turn a child's focus to a book.

In this section we will direct our attention at the earliest stage - birth through young toddlers.

The best thing you can do is read, read, read to your child. Start when you bring them home from the hospital and never stop! From the time they start becoming aware of their surroundings (generally about 6 weeks old) they can acquire a love for books. At the beginning, pick books with lots of big, colorful pictures. Always encourage your baby to reach for, and touch, the books.

When they get old enough to handle them - allow it! Don’'t be worried about ripping pages, and if you are -- get cardboard books. Teach them that "books are our friends." Show them how to handle a book properly but NEVER tell them "no!" when they are interacting with a book. You don't want them to associate the word no with reading - EVER!

How to Find a Children's Book Classic

Your book options are limitless. When your child is young, pick books you know and love. My husband and I began reading each of our childhood favorites, Miss Rumphius for me and The Little Engine that Could for him, during my pregnancy. Every night the main part of our bedtime routine is to read to Max. Sometimes we read 4 books, sometimes only 1 depending on his mood. We rarely skip this time. As he's grown, we've watched him sort of stare off into space while we're reading, to actually laughing at the animals and making excited noises when we reach some of his favorites. Until he's old enough we'll continue to read him our favorites.

Once he is old enough, we'll take him to the bookstore and library, and let him pick out what he wants. He might choose based on color or size or something else we can't possibly imagine right now, but our goal is to get him to the point that he wants to choose. As a teacher I've had tons of parents tell me "my son or daughter just doesn’t like to read." Well, I say wrong! By the time I get them in middle school that may be the case, but to me that means that there wasn't enough emphasis placed on reading in their early years.

We want to do more than just teach kids how to read!

Another huge mistake parents make is to talk negatively about their own reading experiences. Children are like sponges. They pick up on everything. If a child hears her parent say "I was never any good at it" or "I never finished a book in my life" she will certainly adopt that attitude. Even if this is the case, if you're a parent please don't make this mistake! Allow your child to make their own decisions about reading, and encourage them every step of the way!

We want to focus now on the idea of book clubs for children and how we can use them to teach our children a love for reading.

Where does the Real Book Club Queen fit in to all of this? Think of this as your beginning guide to book clubs for children. Since you're here reading about book clubs and looking at book reviews - you must love reading! That means you're eager to help any child in your life learn to love reading as well. As I said before, for young children the best way to foster this feeling is to read, read, read to them! 

The best way for parents and teachers to start book clubs for children that are going to be successful is to simply pick books your child is intersted in reading. Then, get a group of similar aged children together (3 is a great number to start with) and when they "play," make books the 'toys' they are playing with. This shows each child that books are fun, and something to be shared with friends.

So how to choose the right books?

There are thousands of children's book classics available to you at any library or bookstore. There is no possible way I can get to them all and still be an adult reader!  There are so many "oldie but goodies" that nobody even thinks about anymore, so my aim is to remind you, and/or share with you for the first time some great books suitable for book clubs for children that will definitely get your little ones interested in reading!

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