By Sarah Reser

Library Board of Trustees

My middle son was a reluctant reader when he was younger, it was all I could do to get him to crack a book open. Even when the book was open, it was a fight to finish the book. That changed the summer after 2nd grade; he was so interested in history that I suggested we read Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand. I knew that it was way above his level, but the content was so appealing to him, I thought we would give it a try. It took us ALL summer to read the book; we stopped often to sound out words and talk about vocabulary, but we made it.

He and I both loved the book and counted down the days until the movie came out. We watched the movie together, quietly whispering to each other that the book was better. As a mom, I enjoyed every minute of this experience. As a teacher, I loved how much he was learning and how I knew he was learning to love reading. This became our ‘thing’, Joshua and I would pick a book and read it together, stopping often to talk about surprises or make predictions. We began by reading aloud to each other, but as he became a more confident reader, we would just agree to stop every couple of chapters to catch up.

In third grade we read The Martian by Andy Weir and Josh was the most amazing Mark Watney for Halloween. In fourth grade we read The Revenant by Michael Punke and Josh built a complete scene from the book out of Legos. As he got older, he had only two rules for finding our next book: no romance, lots of action. Some of our favorite books were: The Finest Hours by Michael Tougias, Alive by Piers Paul Read and Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. Our current favorite author is Ernest Cline and we are eagerly wishing for a new book from him.

Consider starting a tradition with your children, read your favorite childhood book or check out what books are becoming movies. The library has wonderful employees who can help you and your reader find a book. You can check out http://www.commonsensemedia.org to help you decide if the content is right for you both. This is one of my favorite traditions, in fact, Josh and I just finished reading Bird Box by Josh Malerman and we are on the hunt for our next read.

Until next week, Happy Reading!