5 Tips To Turn A Reluctant Reader Into An Avid Reader

My youngest Emma use to be a reluctant reader, until I discovered some tricks that have made reading more enjoyable to her.

As many of you know, we are avid readers. My husband and I love to read and so did our oldest, Miriam. So, we were concerned when our youngest was more of a reluctant reader. We read to them all the time and they were always surrounded by books. We have so many books in our home, that we do not have a "home" for all of them!

So here is a list of the things I did to help our reluctant reader become an avid reader.

1. Let Them Choose What To Read! This may seem like a no brainer but we often don't let them make the choice. We try to "help" by offering this or that book. Let them browse and find what looks interesting to them.

What got Emma into reading was a comic book series, "Tiny Titans." It looked good to her and she picked it out completely by herself. She devoured these comics and would reread them over and over again! A highlight when she was younger was when she got to meet the creators Art and Franco at Comic Con! She brought every single copy, even the ones without covers and that were falling apart so they could sign them.

2. A Special Book Just For Them One trick I discovered completely by accident. I had picked up some books at a library sale, can't pass up a great deal on books. I usually pick out books with one or the other of the girls in mind but I tend to give them to them all together. Well, that day I happened to show my husband the books first and had told him why I chose each book and who I was thinking would enjoy it. So, he told our girls that mommy had picked out some books special for each of them, so when I got home Emma met me at the door bouncing up and down and asked what books I had gotten special for her. I gave her the books I had picked out thinking of her and she sat down and read them! So, giving them a special book especially for them might help.

3. Fewer Choices Half the time during school I pick out what we will be reading/studying and the other half of them time I will let the girls choose. Well, what I pick isn't always what they are most excited about but when I would let them choose Emma would take forever and she would start whining about not knowing what to pick. Which would lead to me getting frustrated, just pick a book we have a ton! Then one day I chose a few books for her to choose from and asked her to choose from those, which she happily did and sat down to read no whining and no tears. Lesson learned, sometimes too many choices can be way too overwhelming for a beginning reader.

4. Reward Them for Reading I came up with the idea to chart the books we were reading and give them a reward when they reached a certain level. Sometimes it's a toy from the dollar store, a candy bar at the grocery store, picking a craft to do together, picking the movie for movie night, picking dessert, or anything else I come up with. As you can see it's usually inexpensive as well.

Here is what their reading charts looked like when they were younger.

They can fill in the squares by coloring them or with a sticker. Because Mia was a more advanced reader she had to read a few more books than Emma to reach each level.

To solve the problem of having them reading the easiest books to fill up the most spaces faster I came up with a point system. Each book was given a certain number of points determined by me based on difficulty as well as their individual reading levels. Also they are allowed to read the same book again but it loses one point each time it is read, so if a book is worth 3 points the next time it is read it is only worth 2. We did have some books that were so ridiculously easy that they are worth 0 points. They love to see their charts filling up as well as getting their rewards.

Now that they are older we keep a reading log.

5. Read Aloud With Them No matter how old they are reading aloud with them is still a great way to introduce new books and genres. This is a fun way to spend time together as well.

Kind of a spin off to this tip is listening to audio books. We do a lot of driving in the car to classes and such and have discovered audio books for the drive!

Do you have any tips to helping a reluctant reader become an avid reader?

Hubby's Newest Book--"Once Upon A Time, A Bit Earlier. . ."

***Disclosure there is a link in this article to the kickstarter campaign. By clicking on it my husband will get some of the money raised. Or don't pledge. Totally up to you!***

***Another disclosure a lot of these words are taken straight from hubby, Erik Peterson's own words.***

So my hubby, Erik, has a book that got picked up by a small publisher. The publisher is running a kickstarter campaign to get the ball rolling on getting it published. The illustrations are beautifully done by Meredith Moriarty.

If you don't know how a kickstarter campaign works read this paragraph. If you already know how it works you can skip this paragraph. Basically, someone makes something and they think it's really cool or in this case they find someone else who thinks it's really cool. But they don't have the funds to totally create this project, whether it's the person or in this case the small publisher. So they launch a kickstarter campaign to see if there are other people out there that think it sounds really cool and are willing to pitch in some money to help make the project get done.

I have a confession to make.

I don't love Kickstarter. And neither does my hubby. It asks people to buy a book they haven't read and that they can't even find reviews for since the book isn't out. It says, "Buy this thing right now that doesn't exist yet and just trust me that when you eventually get it, it will be good."

There's a chance you'll hate this book. Maybe you'll think it's too short and you got ripped off. Maybe you'll hate what he did with one character or another. Maybe something that he thought was charming, you'll think is cheesy. You all already know this.

Also, usually the cool thing about kickstarting something are is you get cool rewards like autographs of famous authors or dinner with a celebrity. We don't have any of that. We just have books. Though if you're local I can definitely get the author to sign your copy! ;)

But a bunch of you have already taken the plunge anyway. You've put hard earned dollars towards helping this book happen and getting a copy into your hands and homes.

That puts a knot in the pit of our stomachs and makes us want to do everything in our power to make this book live up to the faith you're putting in him. Granted I think that my hubby is more worried about this than I am as he is the one who wrote it.

It also makes us realize what an amazing, loving, supportive group of people you all are.

To all of you who have contributed so far, thank you so much. We appreciate your faith and generosity tremendously. I know Kickstarter is a weird way to do this. You're doing it anyway, which makes you the real heroes here.

So to those of you who aren't sure about Kickstarter, We completely understand. We don't like backing things on Kickstarter either. We're kindred spirits. ::Fist-bump::

We are doing everything in our power to make this Kickstarter different.

First, we've put a BUNCH of the art up already. You can see it in the video on the kickstarter page, and we'll post more. As you can see this blog post is sprinkled with some great art that actually comes from the book!

Second, we've put the whole opening of the book up already. You can get an idea of what it's like and what's going on. It's on the Kickstarter page.

And third, because Erik wants you to feel 100% confident that this book is right for you he am making this offer: comment here on the blog and he'll send you the first half of the book as a PDF.

Not the first three chapters, not the first 20 pages, but the whole first half of the book.

If you don't like it, no hard feelings, no obligation to buy the book. we're glad we saved you the money. Not every book is meant for everybody.

But if you do like it, and you want to read the rest, I hope you'll consider using weird Kickstarter to do it.

It won't have the pictures or the nice formatting (that all still has to be put together) but it will be the manuscript the way it looks in our word processor.

Again, to all of you who have or are planning to contribute to this Kickstarter, thank you. You are a part of this story.

Here is a little bit more about the book itself now that we have all that other stuff out of the way.

By turns charming, funny, exciting and thrilling, Once Upon A Time, A Bit Earlier . . . is meant for all ages. It's similar in size and length to something by Roald Dahl, Sid Fleischman, or Chris Grabenstein. It's a bit longer than The Mouse and The Motorcycle and a bit shorter than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Our tale begins after the Snow White story we all know, as Snow White and her new husband discover the lair of the Dark Queen. When the Magic Mirror realizes the queen has been defeated, he is dismayed.

"I suppose I'll have to try again . . . earlier."

Suddenly, all the stories begin again! Only now, everyone is much younger. Snow White is a little girl. Rapunzel's hair is only long enough to reach the middle of her back. The three bears are still only two!

But that is not all that's changed.

When the Huntsman comes to take Snow White into the woods, we find it is because the Dark Queen has sent him to protect her!

As that change tumbles and collides into each of the other stories, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, the Dark Witch, the Three Little Pigs--all of their stories are twisted and altered.

What's really going on here? What mysteries will be explained?

Perhaps we'll find out why there are so many versions of fairy tales . . .

And the ultimate question of why these evil sorceresses so desperately want all of these little girls dead.

Will they live happily ever after?

Help us Kickstart this book! Get a hardcover copy for $25 at the link below.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/556816435/once-upon-a-time-a-bit-earlier?ref=nav_search