Exploring Literature

Loving Books

Why do some people come to love books and become avid readers? Why do some of us see libraries and bookstores as places of riches? Growing up in a family of readers and being surrounded by books and readers reading is a great start.

Children need to be surrounded by books with lots of reading aloud, lots of conversation about books, and frequent trips to bookstores or libraries. The wonderful thing about libraries is that you don’t have to set limits. Plenty of books can come home with you: silly, exuberant books like Snip Snap!What’s That?, inspiring books like Alia’s Mission: Saving the Books of Iraq, and lots of books for babies like Off to Bed.

When you love to read, it is harder to be bored, harder to be ignorant, and harder to be provincial. Book lovers can find knowledge, wisdom, and appreciation for life in the pages of all kinds of books: serious and silly, suspenseful and sentimental, soulful and sublime. If enveloped by conversation and surrounded by books, the love affair with reading can begin at birth and gain momentum throughout the life of a child.

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