Start a summer reading book club!

Start a two-person (or whole family) book club with your child or children! It’s a great way to encourage summer reading. First, talk to your child about the types of books she likes to read. If she seems to be sticking to one particular genre (fantasy, animal stories, non-fiction), this is a good opportunity to try to expand her horizons a bit. Go to the library or to a bookstore together and pick out something she can get excited about reading. Together, work out a reading schedule and stick to it. Set aside a little time every week to discuss the assigned reading, and take turns coming up with questions for each session’s meeting. Plan some sort of thematic celebration together for when you finish the book – a hike after you’ve read a Gary Paulsen book, a viewing of one of the movies when you finish a Harry Potter book or even a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC after completing From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.