How to Grow a Reader

I always wanted my kids to be readers.  Actually, let me rephrase:  I was determined that if I did nothing else in my career as a mother, my kids would be readers.  My own “book lover” credentials are pretty solid – editor dad, literary agent mom, elementary school career spent holed up in a closet writing (bad) poetry.  Throw in the fact that I put books in the same category as food and water, and that pretty much sums it up.

I can’t say there was a real philosophical underpinning to my determination to transfer my love of books to my sons.  I just knew they

August and Edwin in their nightly routine

HAD to be readers, because that love of reading would connect us always.  And I knew it was good for them without having googled a bunch of educational research.

I’m sure there are many paths to the same result.  This is what I did, and how it worked.  - Anna Barber, Scribble Press co-founder and CEO

1. Be a reader.  I regularly, consistently, frequently read in front of my kids.  I read memoirs on my iPad, the New Yorker, The New York Times, paperback business books, hardcover fiction from the library.  They have always connected “Mom reading” with “Mom relaxing.”
2. Read out loud. I do this sporadically.  I mean, I work and have a crazy life, and sometimes can’t stomach even 20 minutes of Mary Poppins or whatever it is.  Or I’ve been talking all day and just don’t want to hear my own voice anymore.  I know parents who have read all of Harry Potter out loud.  Good for them – I can’t imagine.  We read the first book, plus a few others – enough to make it a regular thing.
3. Have lots of books around.  Books are home decor, they are a fingerprint, a personal history.  While I love my iPad (and my Kindle and my Nook too) kids engage better with the actual paper copies that don’t also come loaded with Angry Birds.  Make sure the lower shelves are full of stuff they might like – your old geology textbook, an Encyclopedia, picture books, comic books, whatever.
4. Don’t be precious about what they read.  You may have a vision of your ten-year old digging into Tolstoy, but be happy when he turns down a tv show to read Captain Underpants.  It’s going to lead somewhere good, I promise.  The potty jokes can’t go on forever.
5. Go to the library and check out a ridiculous amount of books.  This is something we’ve done consistently, every two weeks, for years.  I let each child check out AS MANY books as he wants.  They love the freedom of picking something because they MIGHT be interested – with no pressure.  It’s a treat.  As a side note, pay your late fees and round up.  Donate if you can.  We need our libraries.
6. Talk about reading as a reward, not work.  If you say “read 30 minutes then you can play,” you are sending a different message about reading than if you say, “clear your plate from the table and then you can read.”  Scheduling reading time, hoping it will then stick, doesn’t work –  in my experience.

As I sit here typing this my eight year old is reading THE GREAT BRAIN  and my six year old is reading a book about Stink, Judy Moody’s little brother.  It wasn’t always this way.  They weren’t so excited to go to the library the first 20 times.  I stuck with my program, and about two years ago the light went on for my older son.  Just last month, it happened for my younger one.  ”Mom?” he said.  ”We are rich in books.”  Yes, I said.  Yes, we are.  And there is no better way to be rich.

Rewriting the classics: Jumpstart your child’s storytelling skills

Imitation, so they say, is the sincerest form of flattery. It’s also a great way to start developing your child’s storytelling muscles.  Young children often memorize the words to their favorite books. It’s a short step from that to changing the words slightly to make your own version. Here are five popular picture books that you may have in your house that are a great jumping-off point for writing your own stories with your preschool-age child.  This is a great activity for a lazy summer afternoon.

1)     Goodnight Moon (by Margaret Wise Brown).  Create your own goodnight story featuring the stuff in your child’s bedroom.  You can illustrate it with cutout photos of the actual objects, and make the book out of folded construction paper stapled together at the side. This is also great to bring along when you are travelling as a way to remember home and make bedtime more familiar.

2)     If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (by Laura Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond). This is an easy structure to work with and allows you to explore cause and effect, and the humor of unintended consequences.  Can your child imagine what happens if you give a bear a banana or give an ape an apple?  Play out the scenario and see where it takes you.

3)     Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (by Mo Willems). What else should we not let the pigeon do? Don’t let the pigeon make your lunch? Get you dressed? Clean your room? Imagine the excuses the pigeon comes up with. You can illustrate your version with pencil, and older children may be able to create their own versions of the pigeon. (PS, did you know the pigeon has his own twitter account? Follow him @the_pigeon.)

4)     From Head to Toe (by Eric Carle). Imitating this simple structure by imagining what different animals can do and repeating it is a great imagination exercise for active preschoolers. Write down their ideas, illustrate with photos or drawings of the animals, or just act it out together.

5)   Harold and the Purple Crayon (by Crockett Johnson). For older kids who may be able to draw, this book is a great device: Have your child imagine she is in a sticky situation – how can she use the purple crayon to get out of it? What would be the equivalent dream picnic for your child of Harold’s nine kinds of pies?  How does she get back home to her bed?

Once your child is comfortable with the basic idea of creating new stories, you can start from scratch. You can always go back to the well and look for inspiration from other books. Happy writing!

-Anna Barber
Co-founder and CEO

This post was originally published in 2010. 

Time-out for adventure? A thought or two… and a quick book review

The other day, I was teaching some exuberant third grade girls all about The Hero’s Journey. A little ambitious, I know. 

As usual, “the refusal of the call” was the toughest part of “the journey” to convey. I explained that it’s the part of the story when the hero is faced with the chance for adventure; however, because it takes him out of his comfort zone, he doesn’t really want to do it. After a short while talking about what makes a character’s comfort zone, we set out to write our stories. 

“My character is going to be a girly-girl. She likes makeup and nice clothes,” announced Mioko.

“Girly-girl” is definitely a comfort zone for this third grader–so much so that I didn’t have the heart to point out the unladylike pizza stain on her pretty green jumper as she went on to describe her story: “The hero’s purse is going to fall into a hole in the ground and she’s gonna have to decide whether to mess up her hair and go get it in Sportland…” (Where, naturally, she’ll have to play a sweaty game of soccer to get the purse back.)

Not bad for a third grader, right? 

Now as a child, I didn’t know much of anything about “girly-girl.” When I was three, I asked for a football helmet. My comfort zone involved Star Wars figures battling Strawberry Shortcake for domination of the mud hole underneath the kitchen window. I loved all things NOT girly-girl.

See NY Times Bestseller Sherri Rinker at Scribble Press UWS tomorrow at 4 p.m.!

 So imagine my delight to learn about “Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site,” a clever book by Sherri Rinker that brings the anti-girly-girls back to their comfort zone when it’s time to go to bed. After all, as my sister walked the periphery of the bedroom giving the dolls delicate kisses goodnight, I was battening the hatches, hunkering down for a night on watch, ready to battle the evil armies of tarantulas that were set to attack my bed as soon as the lights went out.  That or I was using my gargantuan Barbie camper as the getaway vehicle in a Hall of Justice take-over. Yes, getting me to go to sleep was itself a hero’s journey. The point is, no ordinary bedtime story with bunnies or moons was going to cut it.

While Rinker’s book may not be the perfect story for a child preparing for an epic arachnid war (“Get the F—k to Sleep” by Adam Mansbach and Ricardo Cortés might have been more up my parents’ alley), “Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site” is an amazing alternative for the energetic child who just wants to spend bedtime yelling VROOOM!  

Whether your child is a girly-girl, a dump truck kid, or a mix of the two, find bedtime books that speak to him/her. Remember that going to sleep is a hero’s journey. And as Mioko’s protagonist dreaded Sportsland, it is your child’s job to refuse the call.

So, be the Mentor. Guide the journey.  And if it helps, bring a dump truck.

Come meet Sherri Rinker and get a copy of “Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site” this Wednesday at 4 p.m., Scribble Press UWS.

-Jennifer Sarja

And the winner is…

Aidan was so thrilled to meet Anna, and she loved congratulating him on his book! “I am happy and excited,” Aidan said.

The votes have been tallied – with a whopping 255 “Likes,” five-year-old Aidan’s book, “How My Implant Changed Me,” has won our eBook Contest! Aidan will receive a publishing party at our New York Upper West Side location at the end of the month, where he’ll sign 20 copies of his book to give to friends and family.

A regular scribbler since our UWS studio opened, Aidan has written more than 10 books. He said he wrote “How My Implant Changed Me” to share his experience of having a cochlear implant.

Aidan wrote about being sad when he couldn’t hear people talking, how he was scared and then brave after going through two surgeries, and how he now loves to talk to his friends!

“I thought it would be a good book and people would know how I was a little boy and could not hear,” Aidan said.

When you create a book at Scribble Press (or by using the Author’s Tool Kit, available for purchase at scribblepress.com), you can turn it into an eBook (for free!), and share it with friends, family and other kids all over the world!

In fact, far away in LA, six-year-old August read Aidan’s story on an iPad and commented, “That was a cool story. I didn’t know you could get an operation to make you hear better.” 

New eBooks are being added everyday, so check back often for other amazing stories by kid authors, and congrats to all Scribblers who entered the contest and received votes!

Let your kids write on the walls

Want to create a space that will heighten your child’s creativity?

Sometimes, it really is about space. Not the size so much. Just a nook where you can read your favorite book, a favorite chair that slides up to the tabletop just right so you can write with ease, a special lamp that casts light just the right way on the page. The same way we like our “stuff” the way we like it, so too do kids need their space. Especially their creative space.

While having the luxury to gift your child a writer’s lounge or art studio in the home is unlikely, there are some simple things that parents can do create “space” for their young authors and artists.

First things first. You will likely need to embrace the concept of creative chaos – which means this space may not be neat to your typical standards. That does not mean there is no organization. Figure out the tools your child needs and then work together to place these things in an accessible way. Paint some coffee cans to hold the pencils. Put up a shelf or two for the various kinds of paper or art supplies. And then, get your child a tabletop or desk space that is his own. I would argue that a postage stamp-sized surface is better than half of the dining room table – which, let’s face it, either is piled with your own tower of unfinished projects or is cleaned regularly by someone who can’t stand piles at all. This is your child’s space. Let ‘em have it.

Then, let ‘em write on the walls.

Huh?!

Seriously. Get a white board or a large piece of poster-sized paper and put it on the wall. Encourage your child to outline and story bubble and sketch out ideas before sitting down to the creative task at hand. Give him a bulletin board to collect notes and ideas and funny pictures of things that may inspire.

There are so very many reasons to do this. First and foremost, it makes your child’s thinking visible. Even better, it introduces your child to the process of developing and reflecting on ideas before barreling ahead. Regardless of whether your child is a visual or verbal learner, the process helps creative minds purge the clutter. Okay, yes, that means they are purging onto your wall. Take a deep breath. It’s going to be okay. White boards can eventually be erased.

In time, if you pay attention, you might even start to notice some things—like how ideas in your child’s head are best sorted out. Does he use more pictures, shapes, charts, words? Or it a smorgasbord of all of them? When the time comes to help junior get organized with homework and writing assignments, knowing “how” his mind works things out and the tools that work for him will be invaluable.

Rest assured, in time the process will likely come down from the wall and become a bit more mobile (and aesthetically tolerable)—a box of index cards or a notebook to carry around. But for now, let creative chaos spill onto the walls of your child’s creative space. Unlike the art projects that go on the refrigerator door, these musings and pictures are for your child. Judge not. Ideas are supposed to be big and messy. Embrace the chaos.

And if you’re really daring…buy your own white board and see what happens.

‘The stuff of great storymaking’

So, I recently watched J.J. Abrams’ speech on the Mystery Box. Here’s the gist: Grandpa gave Abrams a box and it’s gone unopened for decades. His conclusion? Sometimes the best mysteries are the things you’ll never answer.

For someone like myself, and the generation of kids who were bottle-fed instant gratification, there is almost instantaneous frustration at not having answers at the fingertips. We tear open gift wrap, peek at the endings of books, and google breaking news events to imbibe facts before they’re even verified. Our appetite to know now is insatiable. So, when our first ever mystery class at Scribble Press began with the arrival of a mysterious box, I was not sure how the students would react.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Missing Miss Terious class

With detective pads inside, the package instructed students to begin honing their detective skills in order to solve the mysterious disappearance of Miss Mia Terious and a collection of priceless books from the Library of Congress. That the box and subsequent letters with clues had no postmark did not seem to bother anyone. Instead, everyone has managed to suspend disbelief and join us on our leisurely stroll through a slowly-unfolding story. It’s refreshing. Every week, the kids take out their magnifying glass and examine clues as the adventure inspires their own creative endeavors.

Writing is so amazing that way. It’s a journey that can’t be rushed. Like any good detective, we must unravel the story in our heads before it meanders its way onto the paper. When we make time to let it happen organically, the results are extraordinary. Our mystery writers this semester are thinking critically about how the pieces of the case fit together; at the same time, they are filing away devices that may enhance their own tales. I liken my job to that of Dumbledore – I get to teach the magicians the magic. It’s fun to be a writing instructor.

Mystery box!

Of course, next week, there is a box arriving for the kids with the singular instruction that the package NOT be opened until December. Will the heretofore unseen frustration flood our class or will the kids embrace the pace of a story not meant to be consumed in one sitting? Something tells me we’re going to be okay.

Let’s face it. The moments before the wrapping paper is torn away are the best. I intend to help my students milk it. After all, the anticipation, the unknown, the possibilities of what may come – they are the stuff of great storymaking.

Jennifer Sarja

Rewriting the classics: Jumpstart your child’s storytelling skills

Imitation, so they say, is the sincerest form of flattery. It’s also a great way to start developing your child’s storytelling muscles.  Young children often memorize the words to their favorite books. It’s a short step from that to changing the words slightly to make your own version. Here are five popular picture books that you may have in your house that are a great jumping-off point for writing your own stories with your preschool-age child.  This is a great activity for a lazy summer afternoon.

1)     Goodnight Moon (by Margaret Wise Brown).  Create your own goodnight story featuring the stuff in your child’s bedroom.  You can illustrate it with cutout photos of the actual objects, and make the book out of folded construction paper stapled together at the side. This is also great to bring along when you are travelling as a way to remember home and make bedtime more familiar.

2)     If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (by Laura Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond). This is an easy structure to work with and allows you to explore cause and effect, and the humor of unintended consequences.  Can your child imagine what happens if you give a bear a banana or give an ape an apple?  Play out the scenario and see where it takes you.

3)     Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (by Mo Willems). What else should we not let the pigeon do? Don’t let the pigeon make your lunch? Get you dressed? Clean your room? Imagine the excuses the pigeon comes up with. You can illustrate your version with pencil, and older children may be able to create their own versions of the pigeon. (PS, did you know the pigeon has his own twitter account? Follow him @the_pigeon.)

4)     From Head to Toe (by Eric Carle). Imitating this simple structure by imagining what different animals can do and repeating it is a great imagination exercise for active preschoolers. Write down their ideas, illustrate with photos or drawings of the animals, or just act it out together.

5)   Harold and the Purple Crayon (by Crockett Johnson). For older kids who may be able to draw, this book is a great device: Have your child imagine she is in a sticky situation – how can she use the purple crayon to get out of it? What would be the equivalent dream picnic for your child of Harold’s nine kinds of pies?  How does she get back home to her bed?

Once your child is comfortable with the basic idea of creating new stories, you can start from scratch. You can always go back to the well and look for inspiration from other books. Happy writing!

-Anna Barber
Co-founder and CEO