I loved that this book covered the expanse of readership, from babies to older children. Reading is such an important part of their growth, development and lives. What a wonderful resource that I recommend to any mother with children.

This title gives great ideas and advice on how to instill a love of reading in your child. The structure of the book (broken into developmental stages) is helpful and well thought out and the book lists are great!

This is a fantastic, highly appealing book about raising your child(ren) to love reading. I immediately bought numerous copies and have been recommending it. The authors are knowledgeable, their enthusiasm for reading is contagious, and it's no wonder this book became so big.

Thank you NetGalley for providing this book for an honest review.

This book is full of practical tip to create a love of reading in children of all ages. It includes lists of suggested books for different age groups which is just perfect. I first picked up this book when I was expecting for my daughter and she is now 19 months old. I try to follow the ideas and it doesn't seem to help with her. However, with the older step-child it seems to help when she was here.

Have picked it up many times since and reread it. I love how simple and put together this book is.

Thank you NetGalley for providing this book for an honest review. This book is full of practical tip to foster the love of reading and books in children of all ages. I love how it includes lists of suggested books for different age groups.

As the mother of a toddler, I’ve implemented a lot of the advice from this book into our daily life. My son LOVES to read and is already starting to pick out words and letters at 2. We are so impressed, he’s our very own party trick.

"How to Raise a Reader" is a great book full of practical tips to foster reading' and love of books in children. It also includes lists of suggested books for different age groups.

Handy tips for parents to raise bookworms with recommended titles and opinions to inspire young readers.

This book is full of great tips to get your children reading early. I love the lists of suggested books for children of all ages.

Excellent suggestions on how to convince children to read, nice illustrations. Useful organization, dividing by age.

What a great read! I found it intriguing and informative as a parent to toddlers and also as a writer. My favorite part was all the recommendations. I have the e-book version of this book, but I'd like to get the physical copy and then read every single suggestion. Can't wait!

I have read quite a few handbooks for parents who wish to raise book-loving kids, but none have given such dubious advice as this year's How to Raise a Reader by The New York Times Book Review editors Pamela Paul and Maria Russo. (I received a review copy of this book via NetGalley.)

The first red flag for me came in the form of the blanket statement that "[m]any classic children's books are now considered sexist, racist, outdated, and in certain cases, downright awful." This statement sets up the political point of view of its authors as the default "correct" way to consider older books. By writing in the passive voice, the authors conveniently sidestep the need to say precisely who considers these books so terrible, and they leave no room at all for an alternate point of view, despite the fact that many reading-minded parents are conservative homeschoolers who deeply value older books but are not themselves awful racists. This argument is worsened by the suggested remedy: simply "tweak" the books when you read them aloud, editing the author's words to reflect what you wish they said. There are plenty of books I won't read aloud due to content, but it is utterly insulting to authors to presume to rewrite their books, and insulting to the intelligence of child listeners, who can generally handle controversial and difficult topics better than adults ever assume they can.

A second major problem with this book is the way it suggests that parents are irrelevant, or at best tangential, to the reading lives of their children. They come right out and say that reading aloud "isn't about you" (the parent) when they comment that parents whose character voices don't appeal to their kids should "read the room" and stop using them, and then they continue to point out how true they believe that to be at every opportunity. Their recommendations for reading with children include admonishments to "tune out and read by rote" when you're bored, to "be careful not to assert your own values too much" (heaven forbid your children acquire your values) and "save your disapproval for vaping, not books." They also make the absurd claim that it may not be the parent's choice when a child starts reading Harry Potter, as though children are such independent creatures we can't possibly be in charge of any aspect of their lives, let alone reading.

Other problems with this book are more predictable. The authors throw the required bones toward gender ideology by pointing out that books for toddlers might teach traditional gender roles and toward diversity by pointing out the apparently disturbing blondness of the characters in Dick and Jane and stating that "no children should have to learn to read with them." They also caution parents that they might have to explain the language and writing style in those old racist classics, or else just find abridged versions that avoid "antiquated language" to satisfy the children who just can't tolerate "references to an earlier age."

How to Raise a Reader takes for granted many ideas about parenting and childhood that I just don't accept, and that made it impossible for me to enjoy it. Truly, the best resource on this topic continues to be The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease, with Reading Together by Diane W. Frankenstein and The Enchanted Hour by Meghan Cox Gurdon following closely behind. By comparison to these comprehensive and engaging resources, How to Raise a Reader is disorganized, shallow, and unnecessary, and I do not recommend it.

I was so enthusiastic about this book that I bought my own copy. I will page through it for inspiration. Thank you!

It states nothing that a good parent doesn't do anyways. So to me it was pointless and waste of paper.

Yes! I loved this title and have recommended it to educator friends as well as the superintendent of my local district. It should be required reading in educational circles.

This book provides a guide introducing babies to reading as they grow into teens with a lifelong desire to enjoy reading as a goal. It is very well designed including book ideas at every age group some classics you might remember as well as books of today, which are great. It is a wonderful guide with ideas to help start a joy of reading at any age. There also great illustrations. The information in this book is helpful. You don’t have to worry about only using this from start to finish. It is helpful if you would pick this up for your elementary age or middle school age or teen too. It is a way to help encourage youth as well as parents or caregivers with ideas or knowledge on how to raise a reader that enjoys reading. This is not a scientific guide, but a simple guide that is user-friendly. It has tips that are easy to use and book ideas that are helpful as well as inspiring. This would be a wonderful book to have at home, to give as a gift or for teachers.

This is an inspiring and motivating book written by Pamela Paul and Maria Russo. They both are mothers of three kids and experts about children's books.
I think this book is a must-have for all parents who want to raise readers. In fact, as an adult, even I felt so motivated after reading this book. Both the authors have done a great job in writing this book. They have talked about each stage (from a newborn to a teenager) and have mentioned so many tips and tricks so that we can encourage our kids at every stage. I think some of the tips and tricks can also be used by us adults for the matter of fact. They have also given the book recommendation for every stage. This book is a gem and with all this information, the most important thing suggested by them is to have patience at a stage when your child is struggling to become a reader or is having some other issues just support him or her. This is all they need.

The writing is quite promising and reading this book is a delight. For instance, at the beginning of this book, the author writes about how reading a wonderful book is like a therapy. Even if you are stressed or the day is challenging for you, a good book can make you feel lifted up. On days when we are fully exhausted, we can just sit with our kids and start reading a book and the world is a different place altogether.

All in all a great book to read. Thank you netgalley and Workman Publishing Company for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A lot of practical and easy to implement tips to help parents encourage a love of reading in their children. The lists of suggested books for the different ages and reading levels is one of the best features of the book.

How To Raise a Reader is such a helpful tool to equip you to encourage and raise your young readers, no matter what age they are when you pick it up.

The book is really well broken down. Five sections total, four sections that each cover a different age range that were then further broken down, knowledge, suggestions on how to use that new knowledge, what to look for in books for that age, and then books that fell into that category and might be appreciated. The fifth section is all book recommendations.

There weren’t any tips that are stunningly mindblowing, instead this is a gentle guide that pointed out things that you subconsciously knew. Things like ‘making books available’ and then giving ideas for how you can do that. I think that I was audibly saying ‘ah ha!’ every two pages and I highlighted so much that my book could be used to flag aircraft in an emergency.
Some of my favorite tips were “But if you want to increase the likelihood that your child will read, you should fill your house with books. Fill it with temptation.” and “School is where children learn that they have to read. Home is where kids learn to read because they want to.”

Everything about this guide felt gentle and cozy. This isn’t a book on how to force children to read, instead it teaches you how to gently show a love of books that will have a lasting imprint on your child.


Warnings:
None apply

Thank you to NetGalley for a free eCopy in exchange for an honest review.

The formatting of this arc made it a bit hard to get through, but I can say that it has a lot of common sense practical advice and the best part is that it covers all childhood (not just the early years), making it a great reference for parents needing guidance on how to raise their kids to be readers.