My oldest child hasn’t been without a book to read since she first cracked open Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. For her (and I suspect millions of other kids), Harry Potter was what I call a literacy trigger. A story that became so fused with her imagination that it let her become part of another world, a chapter at a time. She enjoyed the experience so much she didn’t want it to end once she was through with all the Harry Potter books. She moved on to The Series of Unfortunate Events, The Last Olympian Series, The Twilight Series, Cressida Cowell’s Heroic Misadventures of Hiccup Horrendous series, and every Eva Ibbotson book she could lay her hands on.
I was sure my middle child would have a similar literacy trigger as my first—that the boy wizard would draw her into the reading. Not so. In fact, I’ve had a much more difficult time finding a book that will help her graduate from children’s books to chapter books. So far, she’s tolerated the Magic Treehouse series, but she’d much rather hang out with Olivia. I’m trying a new method this week, however, partly because I want to make sure she does develop a love of learning and maybe even more, because I love reading out loud the adventures of Hiccup Horrendous, one of the funniest Vikings around.
My youngest is still too young to have had her true literacy trigger. But I’m already convinced she’ll be a reader. She insists I read a book to her each night. And on those rare occasions where we miss bedtime and it’s too late for a story, she cries like I’ve thrown out her favorite teddy bear.
How about your kids? Have you discovered their literacy triggers?
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