Books in a Series

I want to share some benefits of reading books in a series that I have observed over the last few years in my house. My son, a second grader, really enjoys reading. I am happy for him that he is able to find the pleasure in reading. For him, one of the hooks was finding a series that he connected with and would challenge himself to finish once he got started. One series that he enjoyed was the Magic Tree House Series. Mary Pope Osborne is still writing about the adventures of Jack and Annie traveling off to far away lands in a magic tree house. We read many of these together before my son was reading books on his own. He has since gone back and reread all of them now that he is a more capable reader. He is one of those series readers who has to go in order, which was sometimes a challenge for the public librarian to find the next number! Another series that he enjoyed was Ron Roy's The A-Z Mysteries. Again, he had to go in order, but was determined to read them all. The challenge of reading the whole series was motivating for him, but the familiarity of the characters, setting, and plot was also comforting as he gained more confidence in his reading abilities. Each time he settled in to a new title he would inform me of what was new or different in this book compared to the last one. It was the similarities that I think made it feel like he was connecting with an old friend.

My daughter, pre-k, also enjoys series books. We own and have read many times every Fancy Nancy book published to date. Now she is into the American Girl books. She finds an "American Girl" that she likes and has me read each book in that set to her. Right now we seem to be focused on Felicity. Unlike my son, my daughter does not care so much about order so we have been reading them randomly. What has been interesting for me to observe with her is how she is able to connect what has happened in one book to what is happening in another. She will often use what she heard in one book to explain why she thinks Felicity is doing something in the book we're reading.

There are many other benefits with reading books in a series that we can delve into more later. The idea of finding that hook for your child to motivate and hold his or her interest is worth investigating so you can help your child build reading stamina and confidence in his or her reading abilities.

Benefits of Local Libraries

Finding time in your life to do things that are important to you is always tricky. Reading is important to me and making time to choose books is a necessity to keep my reading life going. At the beginning of the school year I usually pick one afternoon where we don't have any other after school obligations to make our library day. Weekly visits are great because if my children choose a video or DVD to watch they are usually only given out for one week. There are many wonderful benefits to making regular visits to your local library. The savings on DVD rentals is one that we enjoy. I haven't been to video store to actually pay to rent a movie in a long time. Our public library has a wonderful and large collection of audio books that we are making our way through. As a teacher and school librarian I always check out the new books they get in their children's room. This year I also have made an effort to get to know and use my local library's website. Through that website I have signed up to receive some online newsletters where I can learn more about authors, illustrators, and what's new in children's books. In addition our library website has a number of online databases for research in many areas. While there are many benefits from regularly visiting your local library the one I enjoy most is seeing the librarians. My children know them and they know my children by name and they all seem so happy to see us all when we come walking in the door. Do you think you can make some time in your schedule?