How to get children to read

Children need books – who would seriously want to argue against this? Books are a comfort, they open up worlds without costing one. But how do we teach that to our children who are more and more distracted and waste their time in front of computers and televisions?

For children the matter is simple: Books have to be cool. Therefore, it is of no use to lock the little ones up in the graveyard of forgotten books or torture them with well-meant presents. Not to mention, lamenting the good old days when we – allegedly – read so much more. We have to turn our children into addicts who cannot live without the “stuff as dreams are made of”, as Shakespeare used to put it. We have to read to them, then read with them, and in the end let them read on their own. Because “children do read what they want if they are allowed to do so.”

Every child who has gained his or her own access to books has mastered a huge step in their own intellectual development. And that is beside the emotional development, the most important gift we can give to our children.

Don’t bring books to the children, but bring children to the books! This book is a proper horn of plenty, packed with useful ideas – and with witty, cheeky, surprising, clever and irresistible inspirations.