Joy of Reading

Lets get straight to the point. Many of us as parents want our children to get into the habit of reading books. Just like the Writer's Block for the authors, we are also stuck in a Reader's Block. Where to Start and How to Start?

Book Exhibitions

Book exhibitions are wonderful opportunities for us and our children to get 'exposed' to the world of books. The Chennai Book Fair happens once a year in January around the Pongal holiday time, and taking our children around the 200-300+ book stalls is in itself an experience. Yes, children may initially be interested only in the balloons, ice-creams, juice and cotton candy stalls, and not necessarily in the 'book' stalls. Nothing to be irritated about this - lets acknowledge, how many of us were really interested in books as kids!! However, regular exposure and 'showing by example' will have its impact in the child's mind for sure. So, do we need to wait until January to get started. Not at all, there are other opportunities.

Library

Am sure many of us have travelled through the Kotturpuram road and also noticed the Anna Centenary Library there. Stop by and venture into that sprawling campus of books once, and I bet you will want to go again and again and again. There is one whole floor (first floor) dedicated to childrens books, and entry allowed for parents too. Take your kid there and you yourself pick a book, sit there and start reading. It wont be long before your children also get indulged. And this is a cost effective option as well, since there is no entry fee here. But we can only read books in the library, and cant borrow them home. Consistency is important - a visit once in a bluemoon is not enough, fill in your weekend planner with regular visits to the library.

Reading at Home / Bed Time Reading

Once this habit has started, start getting books at home. This could be by enrolling into lending libraries or by purchasing books. It is important that either of the parents make it a habit to 'read' stories to children, even if the children are able to read on their own, especially at bedtime if not at any other time during the day. Let there not be an excuse of 'I dont have time' - this is quality time to be spent with our children.

Building a book collection

Do we need to really spend on buying books for home? Building a collection at home helps children look at books as an option to spend their times of boredom. It will also help them go back to the same book as they grow, and get different imaginations and perspectives.

How about including a 'book' as part of gifts or return gifts to your child's friends. This will automatically increase your child's interest in looking at varied books and titles.

Reading is for Pleasure and Fun

Lets be clear on one thing. Reading should not be imposed on our children with a goal or target of increasing intellect - this is not corporate performance evaluation. Reading is for pleasure and Reading is for fun, and every other skill will be default by-products. Books will become greatest companions for our children as they grow. Books introduce them to a world of imagination and knowledge, to new cultures, languages, people and places.

Children's Titles, Authors and Publications

To begin with, Amar Chitra Katha titles and Tinkle comics could be interesting to the kids. These kind of titles are easily available in shops like Connexions, Higgin Bothams, etc. There are a lot of books, authors and publications for children - both Indian and Foreign - R.K.Narayan, Sudha Murthy, Ruskin Bond, Enid Blyton, Usborne Publications, Tulika Books, Pratam Books, CBT/NBT to name a few.

If you are from Tamilnadu, kindly make it a point that you introduce Tamil books and authors as well to your children. There are a wide range of books available (generally not found in shops like Connexions, but there are other places to get them). Authors like S. Ramakrishnan, Ayesha Natarajan, Vizhiyan and publications like Books for Children (Bharathi Puthakalayam), CBT/NBT have books for children in Tamil.

Finally , a few things we can follow

- Whenever buying books for children, make it a point to buy a book for yourself as well. Let children see us read regularly.

- Lets carry a book with us wherever we go. Make book reading a habit during nothing-else-to-do times.

Suggestions

- search for 'little sparks library' in google

- search for 'crea book shop mylapore' in google

- https://www.amarchitrakatha.com/in/

- http://prathambooks.org/ (reading level 3 to 5 - covers age group 8 to 12years)

- http://www.tulikabooks.com/ (a bit expensive)

- http://www.childrensbooktrust.com/