TAKING BOOKS TO HEART: How to Develop a Love of Reading in Your Child

Copperman presents here the techniques taught to parents at his Institute of Reading Development, some of which are helpful. He recommends setting aside a specific time at least three times a week for parent-child reading sessions. With preschoolers (starting whenever they are ready for oral reading), the program should emphasize books as a source of pleasure and reading as an extension of parental love. The parents should cuddle the children or hold them on their laps. All types of illustrated books are appropriate, from fairy tales to ""wordless"" books, in which parent and child fill in the story developed by illustrations. With school-age children, the emphasis is on reading comprehension. Copperman contends that most schools fall down in inspiring understanding of the written word, even though they do a good job at teaching word recognition. Hence, parent-child reading sessions should now stress discussions about the meaning of the book. Furthermore, the books themselves should be at the vocabulary level of the school primers: very simple. Copperman supplies a long list of recommended books for each age group and explains how to use the public library to its optimum. He also furnishes numerous techniques for fostering reading such as choral reading, home taping of books as well as commercial tapes, a daily activities book dictated or written by the child and illustrated with magazine pictures. He also provides useful word games and reference books on learning songs, games and so on. Although this work could be handily cut by at least half, it's worth plowing through for the useful ideas strewn throughout.