In 2016, author Sands Hetherington, who was a single parent raising a son, started a campaign called Boys Who Read, which encouraged children and parents together to make reading an enjoyable habit in their lives. Seven years later, it’s worth revisiting and renewing our efforts to create a generation of kids who love to read.
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As a children’s author, father, and lifelong reader, I wholeheartedly believe that books are an important part of expanding a child’s inner life, helping them understand the world and its people with greater empathy, compassion, and curiosity.
As C. Gordon puts it, “A book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter any other way.”
And don’t our children deserve to know the pleasure of walking on that red carpet?
I have written about it before and will write about it again: As parents, we need to encourage our children to turn off their screens, turn off Netflix, and pick up a book once a day. But our approach is extremely important. If we treat reading a book like a recreational activity (You’ve finished your homework, now you can read!) and going to pick out a book like an exciting outing (Why don’t we go out for ice cream and pick out a new book!), then their mindset will follow.
Let’s work together to create a new generation of #BoysWhoRead.