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allydee's review
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
4.0
This was a quick and interesting read. Nash seems to love all the books I’ve ever loved, and I empathized with her experience of trying to pass that love along to little readers who have different tastes and preferences.
nina_rod's review
2.0
Was okay. A short conversation about books which I like instead of a book on lists of books. Wrote a few of her recommendations down to read to my kids later on. Bought the book, but will donate it to the library. For a longer conversation about great books, I recommend Honey for the Child's Heart instead.
aedgeworth27's review
5.0
Loved this book! The stories were adorable and relatable and she gave great tips to encourage children to read.
beccah85's review
4.0
This was a short book that encourages parents of emerging readers. I will definitely recommend this next time I am asked for advice on early reading. I tend to recommend books like this over a specific reading curriculum. Great book. Reading Magic by Mem Fox and Jim Trelease’s Read Aloud Handbook rate higher for me, but I will add this to my list.
raehink's review against another edition
3.0
An uplifting and encouraging read for parents who struggle with children who do not necessarily share a passion for reading.
A few fave quotes:
But reading suffers when we turn it into a high-anxiety, competitive activity. The process suffers, our kids suffer, and we suffer along with them. I know this, not because I have any expertise in teaching reading beyond my own experience as a parent, but because during the years in which my two children learned how to read, there were many times when my desire for them to succeed strayed into desperation, my hope morphed into obsession, and instead of helping pass on my passion, my resolve got in the way. The magic moments--the ones in which my own love of reading was naturally passed on--came in their own sweet time, through the blessing of being together in the presence of good books and by the grace needed to see each of my children as individuals separate from me. Like so many of the things we do as parents, raising readers happens in bursts of delight and desperation, in the push and pull of digging in and letting go, day in and day out, both because of and in spit of our efforts. (2)
There's such a big difference between reading a book because you have to in order to write a term paper or an editorial report and reading a book because you stumbled across it, selected it, and found that it grabbed you by the shoulders and wouldn't let you go. (6)
Amen, sister!
There are so few times you can say YES to your child without any hesitation or any limits. You can't do it at snack time or bedtime or on a play date or at the grocery store or the toy store or even at the park, where it's not OK to climb up the slide when someone else wants to slide down and it's not OK to stay when the wind picks up and it begins to get dark. Camping or a day at the beach are two activities that also lend themselves to saying YES--YES, you can dig a bigger hole; YES, we can stand here in the water all day; YES, you can stay up late to look at the stars. But most of us can't camp out or hang out at the beach as often as we'd like. We can, however, go to the library and say YES to books...On each visit [to the library], we would take home fifteen, seventeen, twenty books, and pile them at the end of the girls' beds where they could, almost literally, wallow in them. It didn't make any difference that we would never read them all, that a book on extraterrestrial life was way beyond the kids' understanding, or that every once and awhile one of the books would disappear into thin air (under the bed? behind the dresser?) and I would have to pay the late fee or the replacement cost. What mattered was having the experience of abundance. (19-20)
Wallowing in an abundance of books. Isn't that a lovely image?
A few fave quotes:
But reading suffers when we turn it into a high-anxiety, competitive activity. The process suffers, our kids suffer, and we suffer along with them. I know this, not because I have any expertise in teaching reading beyond my own experience as a parent, but because during the years in which my two children learned how to read, there were many times when my desire for them to succeed strayed into desperation, my hope morphed into obsession, and instead of helping pass on my passion, my resolve got in the way. The magic moments--the ones in which my own love of reading was naturally passed on--came in their own sweet time, through the blessing of being together in the presence of good books and by the grace needed to see each of my children as individuals separate from me. Like so many of the things we do as parents, raising readers happens in bursts of delight and desperation, in the push and pull of digging in and letting go, day in and day out, both because of and in spit of our efforts. (2)
There's such a big difference between reading a book because you have to in order to write a term paper or an editorial report and reading a book because you stumbled across it, selected it, and found that it grabbed you by the shoulders and wouldn't let you go. (6)
Amen, sister!
There are so few times you can say YES to your child without any hesitation or any limits. You can't do it at snack time or bedtime or on a play date or at the grocery store or the toy store or even at the park, where it's not OK to climb up the slide when someone else wants to slide down and it's not OK to stay when the wind picks up and it begins to get dark. Camping or a day at the beach are two activities that also lend themselves to saying YES--YES, you can dig a bigger hole; YES, we can stand here in the water all day; YES, you can stay up late to look at the stars. But most of us can't camp out or hang out at the beach as often as we'd like. We can, however, go to the library and say YES to books...On each visit [to the library], we would take home fifteen, seventeen, twenty books, and pile them at the end of the girls' beds where they could, almost literally, wallow in them. It didn't make any difference that we would never read them all, that a book on extraterrestrial life was way beyond the kids' understanding, or that every once and awhile one of the books would disappear into thin air (under the bed? behind the dresser?) and I would have to pay the late fee or the replacement cost. What mattered was having the experience of abundance. (19-20)
Wallowing in an abundance of books. Isn't that a lovely image?
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