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Tips to Build Better Readers Not sure how to approach reading with your child? A variety of things you can do before, during, and after sitting down to read will help you and your children be ready to tackle exciting new books: Display the book in a public place as soon as you get it home. Make a special place to put the books you are reading together. Maybe even decorate the shelf. Talk about the title, even on the way home in the car. Ask your child what he/she thinks it might mean or what the book might be about. Look at the cover. Have each family member share what the pictures mean to him or her. Ask your child if he knows anything about the subject that the book seems to be about. Discuss what you both hope to learn from the book. (If you finish the book and didn’t learn what you were looking for, you can check the related books links at the end of the book list for even more great books!) Open the book and glance at a few pictures. Talk about what the pictures suggest to you. Examine the parts of the book with your younger child: the title page, any chapter or section headings, the ending pages (see if there’s an index or glossary, a word list) so your child can generalize knowledge about these parts when he uses text books in school. Discuss the author of the book. Have you heard of this author or read other works by him/her? After you start reading, make a note of new or difficult words you or your children might have learned while enjoying the book. Write them on a slip of paper and put it on the refrigerator so you’ll remember to try to use them again. Then praise your child if you hear him/her using them in speech. Or you could write them on popsicle sticks and put them in a cup for a “use this word” game while you cook dinner. Read a few pages, then pause to ask your child what he thinks might come next. After you finish the book, ask your child what a different ending to the book or outcome to the story might have been. If your child can write, ask him to write down a few possible other ways the book might have ended. Ask your child what other books the author could write. Check to see what other titles this author has written and see which ones sound interesting to you.