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Expert: Grace Shanahan

During the month of May, Grace Shanahan answered your questions about motivating kids to read during the summer months.

Read her response to question 1 below.

Question 1: 
Hi Grace-
My son is 10, and he hates reading. He loves his video games, and it is hard for me to tear him away. He would never even think of reading a book for “fun.” However, I would really like to make sure that he reads a few books this summer. Do you have any suggestions for me? Any ideas for book titles that a video game-addict might enjoy?
Thanks,
Bethany J.

Reply:
There are many authors who are wonderfully fanciful, exciting, and know precisely what interests pre-adolescent boys.  The good new is also that they are quite prolific.  So if you find one your son likes, you can surely find more. Try these suggestions:

• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
• Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
• Holes by Louis Sachar
• Summer Reading is Killing Me by Jon Sczieska

I would also suggest that you don’t expect your son to just love these books at the very beginning.  Why don’t you start by reading to your son?  Jim Trelease (author of The Read Aloud Handbook) recommends reading aloud to children until about age thirteen.  Reading aloud to a child is a wonderful way to share an experience, find something to talk about, and spend time together.  Those seem to me to be powerful motivations to read together as you son is on the threshold of his teenage years, when he will not want to spend any time at all with you!

One last suggestion – graphic novels are very popular with young people.  The combination of art, layout and plot development makes them much more than big comic books.

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