Fostering a Child’s Love of Reading

Parents recognize the importance of reading in the development of children, but are unsure of where to begin creating a library. Fortunately for us, Theresa Fagan has pioneered the way.

Raucous laughter fills the room as my husband reads another joyful, but humorous tale from Sr. Cecilia’s childhood. My kids jump out of their seats to reenact the scene just told. As the chapter ends, the laughter is quickly replaced by exclamations of protest begging for one more chapter of the amazing book, The Deliverance of Sister Cecilia.

My children are voracious readers. For example, my oldest son has been known to devour over a hundred pages in a day. All of my children anxiously await story time when my husband will read aloud to them. He and I can take very little credit for their love of reading. All that we do is purchase the books and place them somewhere accessible for our children to find. Our success rests on the shoulders and trailblazing work of Theresa Fagan, veteran homeschool mother and author of the beloved booklist, A Mother’s List of Books.

The topic of reading often comes up in conversation among mothers; many of whom wring their hands over the nature of books printed for children today. Similar questions are always afloat, “what do your children read? Where do you find good books?” Regrettably, the majority of contemporary books contain main characters who avoid responsibility, espouse inappropriate humor that parents don’t want reinforced, or some content that is downright horrifying. The notion of children reading just for the sake of it, regardless of the subject matter, is a falsehood that these mothers intuit. Their instinct does these parents credit for the content consumed matters in the formation of both mind and soul. Just as we are what we eat in corporeal form, we are what we read (and watch) in spirit and intellect.