The Reading Solution: Making Your Child a Reader for Life

Forty percent of Canadian high school students read less than two hours a week. And yet by the time he reaches grade 8, the average Canadian child will have spent 12,000 hours in front of the television set. He will have watched 300,000 commercials and over 10,000 murders on the small screen. Success at school and success in later life hinges on literacy. But literacy does not simply mean grasping the rudiments of reading--real literacy is a sophisticated skill that involves the ability to comprehend and sift through the huge variety and barrage of written information we receive throughout or lives. Real literacy is also a gift that brings much pleasure and knowledge.

Here is the one book parents must have to make sure their child becomes a reader--and stays a reader. The Reading Solution starts with the fundamentals, stressing such necessities as reading to your child every day, keeping the home full of books, and curtailing television viewing. Paul Kropp draws on the latest research from around the world, and passes along tips, tricks and suggestions to keep children reading--and enjoying it--straight through adulthood.

The Reading Solution tells parents:

How to help your child pass the 4th grade slump and 9th grade boredom; How to read aloud to encourage your child's own reading; How to work with your child's school--and what to do if the school won't cooperate; What to do with reluctant readers, how to make sure enthusiastic readers stay that way, and how to spur bored readers of any age.Included are dozens of book lists: "must-buy" books for every age, genre books, illustrated books, funny books for 5th graders, quirky books for teens...over 250 annotated recommendations of Canadian and world-wide titles.

Paul Kropp is Canada's most widely-read author for young adults, with over 30 books in print.  He is also a teacher with 20 years of experience developing young readers.  He lives in Toronto.