Reading Resources for Parents

As promised, each month in addition to a review of any new and great adult books I have read, I am also going to highlight some great online reading resources for parents.  Most of us struggle with how to get our children to read more, or are looking for additional books for our children to read.  I often get the question "What should my child be reading?" My most honest answer is "What ever they enjoy!"  Don't worry if your children are choosing to read books that don't seem like great works of literature.  Foster the love of reading first and they will come around to reading the classics before you know it.  Let your children see you read.  We all know we should model good behavior for our children, and this includes reading.  If you set aside time to read everyday, your children will see this, and come to develop the reading habit too!

So with this in mind, it seems best to start with Scholastic for Parents.  Scholastic is one of the top publishers for children's books in the United States, with a long history of providing great educational and recreational reading materials for kids.  Their website has extensive resources for parents on reading, as well as activities and printables.  One of the best features of this site is the "age-by-age quick finder."  Enter  your child's age, and the type of book you are looking for, and a list of suggested reading material is provided for you!  This is a well organized site, and it is very easy to use.  Take a few minutes to explore it, and let me know what you think!

http://www.scholastic.com/parents/

I was so excited to read the first book from Khaled Hosseini in six years.  After his huge success with two of my favorite books The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, this book was eagerly awaited.  Oh how I wanted to love it, but I didn't even like it very much.  I think my problem was with the time shifting for each character.  Often that particular devise can be used effectively to tell a story that spans decades and multiple characters, but I felt like we were lurching from one story to the next, rather then making smooth transitions.  Hosseini is a genus at bringing the world of the Afghan diaspora to life, but this work is not quite as good as the others.  Read it for yourself however, and let me know what you think.  See a complete plot summary below!

Library Journal (April 1, 2013)

This bittersweet family saga spans six decades and transports readers from Afghanistan to France, Greece, and the United States. Hosseini (The Kite Runner; A Thousand Splendid Suns) weaves a gorgeous tapestry of disparate characters joined by threads of blood and fate. Siblings Pari and Abdullah are cruelly separated at childhood. A disfigured young woman, Thalia is abandoned by her mother and learns to love herself under the tutelage of a surrogate. Markos, a doctor who travels the world healing strangers, avoids his sick mother back home. A feminist poet, Nila Wahdatire, reinvents herself through an artful magazine interview, and Nabi, who is burdened by a past deed, leaves a letter of explanation. Each character tells his or her version of the same story of selfishness and selflessness, acceptance and forgiveness, but most important, of love in all its complex iterations.