Summer inspires reading safaris and makes me remember adventures I've had with my children. With the perspective and romantic vision almost-grown children can give, I see specific stages we've passed through and the support I've given during the uniquely different phases. New books and memories inspire me to share insights with parents embarking on the various reading journeys. So this is the launch of a series of three articles about early reading, beginning with maiden voyages.
When children forge an interest in reading, a parent's primary job is not to force-feed word attack skills, but to promote the pleasure of books. Let teachers do the hard work and enjoy supporting your children's love of learning. This is actually the most far reaching teaching and the kind they learn best at home.
One of children's greatest prereading joys is discovering the connection between the print they see and the words they hear while listening to audiobooks. Suddenly, as they listen to a tape, and turn the pages when a beep sounds, they have a new sense of accomplishment. Children gifted with auditory talents recite a story, or a hunk of a book, or a refrain and delight in "reading" by themselves. Two wonderful classics, George and Martha One Fine Day and George and Martha Back in Town , have just been released in tape-book format. Both these collections of short stories about the friendship between two hippos are silly and endearing. (both paperback-cassette combos are from Houghton Mifflin, $9.95; ages 4-7)
Sometimes children's desire to read precedes their abilities. You can ease this potentially frustrating situation with books that contain rebuses (or pictures which symbolize words). While parents decipher the words, children have a part to play as they decode the pictures. Jean Marzollo's I Love You: A Rebus Poem (Scholastic, $7.95; ages 2-5) has only a few bold-typed words and several clear pictures on every page. The poem's rhythms provide additional support so that before long children will be able to read the words, too.
Repetition, another reading brace, joins with rebus in Jeanette Winter's version of the cumulative story, The House That Jack Built (Dial, $13.99; ages 2-5). Winter's rebuses are introduced and then reappear throughout the repeating text. Her rich illustrations and the familiarity of the story bring additional delight and involvement to prereaders.
Often reading begins with a curiosity about letters. Brazilian-born Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich is a creative director for a publishing house and his passion for design shows in Bembo's Zoo: An Animal ABC Book (Holt, $17.95; ages 4 and up). Bembo is not a character, but a font named after a popular Renaissance writer. de Cumptich sculpts and scrambles this graceful typeface to create animal forms. While adults admire the elegant graphics, they'll enjoy helping children discover the letters which spell out the animals' names.
Two other alphabet books inspire letter play. Bernard Most's ABC T-Rex (HBJ, $13.00; ages 4-7) begins, "There was once a T-Rex who loved his ABC's so much, he ate them up." The dinosaur's eccentricity and passion for words seem to spring from the author's sensitivities. Most dresses this enormous reptile in child's clothing and places him in familiar situations where he gobbles alphabet letters with zest. "A was appetizing/ B was even better" until finally, "X reminded him of his Xercycle, Y made him yawn and Z was for z-z-z-z..." Each illustration has several objects which begin with the focus letter-of-the-page. All of them are colorful, silly child pleasers.
Mike Lester's A is for Salad (Putnam, $9.99; ages 4-7) has an interesting perspective and serves as an inspiration for a wonderful guessing game. On the "A is for salad" page, for example, the child determines that the letter "a" is not really for salad, but for the exuberant alligator eating this salad. The quirky presentation, humor, simplicity, and playful illustrations make it a book that children will want to return to when they can identify words.
The next stage of reading begins when children want to decipher words. This may or may not follow quickly on the heels understanding the connection between letters and story for children learn at different rates and in a variety of styles. In the scheme of things, this initial phase of prereading passes quickly, so relax and enjoy your children's playful early explorations.
And be sure to read aloud! While children are building reading skills, one of parents' crucial roles is to introduce the pleasing world of literature. Read stories that have lots of rhythm, rhyme, and repetition. Read others that include vivid words and intriguing ideas. All of these will add to children's repertoire of understanding how stories work, prepare them for reading, lay foundations for a passion for words that will last forever, and blaze the trail which leads to becoming lifelong readers.