Help Your Son to Read With The Right Books

As a librarian and the mother of a boy who was considered a below average reader in the traditional education system, I developed a keen interest in books that would help him become interested in reading. As a visual child he loves images, so books with lots of colourful pictures are a must.

Here's a list of ways to engage your son in reading:

1. Find Books They Are Interested In.
OK...now when I say books I am thinking broadly. I'm not just thinking of dusty cream colored pages filled with tiny black writing. I'm talking comics, magazines, beginner readers, picture books, non-fiction tomes, anything!

These days there is no excuse for a boy not to find something they are interested in reading. There are so many visually appealing books on just about every conceivable subject just waiting to entice viewers into sampling the words that expand on their colourful images.

For visual learners, this is their generation to shine.

2. Really Look For The Best Books To Give Your Child
I mean really look for them and look at them. Not just at the cover or the subject matter, but look inside. Trust yourself. Just because it says Beginner Reader doesn't mean that it is right for your son.

Just say your son is a "reluctant reader" and loves Star Wars. There are heaps of books on Star Wars so where do you start? The Jedi Quest, Jedi Apprentice and Last Of the Jedi series' are great but are too dense and overwhelming for early readers. The Dorling Kindersley Beginner Readers are appealing but the vocabulary might be too frustrating for readers who struggle.

Random House released a series of Jedi Reader books to coincide with the prequel films at four different levels of reading and you can find them on ebay. Their vocabulary selection is highly suitable for early readers. Also, comic publisher Dark Horse released a series of comics called Clone Wars Adventures that has many visuals and a few well-chosen words.

Go for what you think will work and if in doubt test it out...Gently.

3. Be Patient & Be Consistent
Be really, really, really patient and totally, totally, totally consistent. Read with your visual learner each day with him sitting by your side. Set aside a time where you read him a book and then he reads to you.

Read him a chapter of a book like Geronimo Stilton, My Father's Dragon or a few pages of a Tintin book so he can watch the story as he hears your words. Then encourage him to read to you, whether it be a page or a small book, he will develop not only a steady reassuring love for the time he spends with you but a sense that you are really interested in his reading.

You are sharing two things that are so essential to his life-journey: Love and words.

4. Fill Your House With Comics And Other Visual Books
You don't have to spend a fortune to do this. Thrift stores, second-hand book sales and the king of all things cheap and accessible, eBay, are the places to start.

You can buy auction lots of all-ages comics from the 1980s to the 2000s at a great price. Try the Marvel STAR imprint, Groo (Groo is great for visual humor), Batman Adventures, Justice League Adventures, Teen Titans, Cartoon Network Block Party, Loony Tunes and comic strips like Garfield. Many all-ages comics have also been collected into trade paperback format at an affordable rate.

Purchase new or previously read books in visual series like Geronimo Stilton or visual dictionaries and guides (Usborne offer a great entry level Encyclopedia and information series) to space flight, dinosaurs, computers, mechanics, and thousands of other subjects, one of which is bound to entrance your child.

Once you have books in your house they will pick them look at the pictures then put them down, pick them look at the pictures then put them down and one day they will pick them up and read a few words.
Cool!

5. Reading Levels are a Guide only!
I was acutely aware that my 8 year old son was nowhere near reading fluency while some kids his age were reading Harry Potter by themselves. As a child I was one of those kids who read everything I could get my hands on.

It took a while for me to accept that my son learns in a different way and will come to reading in his own time. I just need to be there to guide him with patience and the right resources. When he is ready I have the books that will open the door to words and the new world that reading ushers in to his life.