Monday, November 2, 2009

Raising A Reader by Jennie Nash

Raising A Reader By Jennie Nash
160 pages
Published July 2003 by St Martin's Press

Jennie Nash was one of those parents. You know the ones. They're the people that run up and down along the sidelines, screaming, as their child plays soccer. They're the parents that push their children onto the stage despite extreme stage fright. In Jennie's case, though, it wasn't sports or theater or even scholastics, in general, that Jennie pushed. It was a passion for reading. She loved to read and she assumed that she could instill that same passion in her children. She assumed that...until she realized that she couldn't. In this book, Nash has passed along to the rest of us the lessons she learned along the way. She shares the mistakes she made as well as what did work. Nash learned that the magic moments happen in their own good time. Our job as parents is to make it possible for those magic moments to happen.

Along the way, Nash shares tips she's picked up from others as well as what she's learned in her own life. There is also a wealth of books listed that are not only excellent books but books that will inspire children to want to read more. I highly recommend this for all parents of young children.

11 comments:

  1. I'll look out for this one. I have three boys, the oldest two are voracious readers, the youngest couldn't give a toss if he ever opened a book. His father and I never have our noses out of books either so this is very strange for us. Reading someone else's story about it might give me a little assurance.

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  2. SOunds like a great book. I raised 2 kids and 1 is a reader...not sure how that works...LOL

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  3. I've been blessed. My two boys have always loved to read. I started them out early and they continue at 18 and 14 to read a lot.

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  4. Oh my gosh, when I read the start of your review, I got TEARS in my eyes and I thought, "Oh no, she totally missed my point." I wanted to shout, "I'm NOT one of those parents! Really I'm not!" But then I read further and saw that you did the shouting for me -- well, but in much less strident tones, and really lovely prose. Thanks for getting it. Cheers!

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  5. This looks good. I'll make a note of it for a great gift idea.

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  6. One of our biggest accomplishments as parents is raising a voracious reader! This book is great!

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  7. My daughter was born a reader. My son, not so much but he is getting better and enjoying it more.

    It physically pained me when he told me a couple of years ago that he "hates to read." I felt the need to change that and did, to a degree, but quite by accident.

    One day I had an older, more mature book lying around and he read it and liked it. It struck me that all this time I was pushing the wrong types of books at him. Live and learn.

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  8. Wow! I think this is something i must HAVE! Many times i hope that our baby will love reading too :)

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  9. This sounds like a wonderful book, especially for parents of young children. But the fact that it's by a reader about reading and books interests me.

    I also find it very interesting that I was unaware of this author and then yesterday I read a great review of a different book by Jennie Nash, and one I very much want to read now!, in the blog Devourer of Books. Funny how things happen.

    ~ Amy

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  10. This looks like it would be interesting! I love reading - and so far my daughter loves books, too - that's something I've also always counted on. She's even starting to sound out words now, though I'm being careful not to push her. I've tried to make reading fun and hope it stays that way.

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