My first and best strategy is to read aloud to children even if they are able to read for themselves; it is the best advice that I can offer you.

The phrase ‘read aloud to kids’ has been used so many times that many don’t pause to ponder the power of it. But reading aloud to kids is a powerful way to connect them to books, and to bring into being new generations of devoted and passionate readers.

Too often kids learn reading skills but not the joy of reading, and because they think of it as hard, they don’t read. Until they think of reading as fun they won’t do it. In order for kids to understand the fun of reading they must first experience it.

One way to experience this fun is being read to by an adult who is an excellent, and an exciting reader, one who puts aside the mechanics, rules, and difficulties of reading for the child, and lets the child relax and get caught up in the story.

People who are gifted at reading out loud bring books to life for children.

These talented readers bring the characters to life and into the imaginations of their listeners the way that radio plays did for families in the past. Gathered around the radio, families were able to escape from their own worries and visit another world together.

When you read to children remember these points:

1. End the reading periods before they are restless, bored or tired
2. Find the right books for the child’s understanding
3. Make sure the books please the child; always respect their taste.
4. Read to your children as part of your schedule and as a way to spend time together. Make a promise to yourself that in the future your children will remember these reading times as happy times.
5. If you, the reader, are tense or tired read only a page or two and stop.
6. Don’t lecture, and don’t criticize the child during reading periods
7. Never use mandatory reading time as a correction/or punishment when the child has been acting up.
8. And, don’t punish children by taking away their reading for pleasure time.
9. You can deprive them of t.v. instead.
10. Read not to give a learning experience but for the fun of it.  The child will learn from the content of the book.
11. Be a good and an interesting reader.  Be an actor if you can.
12. Love and value the time you spend when reading to your child, or when the family is together, and everyone is reading their own book to themselves.
13. Welcome those quiet “read together” times. You and your children need them in this busy, techno-exhausting world.

There are many books that help children learn to read and love to read. For instance, Harper Collins Children’s Books offers the I Can Read! series that has books for reading together with children, and for children reading by themselves.  Over 6 million I Can Read! books have been sold.

I Can Read! Books

Become an I Can Read! Member
Remember that the problem is that children must not just be able to read; they must also want to read.

Since they won’t want to read if it isn’t any fun, this summer don’t give them books that are ‘good’ for them. Instead, give your kids books that are exciting, mysterious, relaxing and fun.  In other words, this summer, let your children read the same kind of books that YOU, their parent, wants to read when on vacation, and most likely, that’s not  Moby Dick or War and Peace.

I remember summers on our Iowa farm when I was eleven or twelve,  defying the heat, leaning against the trunk of, and cooled by the shade of the  Catalpa trees, a book in my hands, and my mind caught up in an imaginary world. This summer give your child an adventure, help him to escape into the pages of a book.

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Readers:  This post, and this post, only, is on the Castle Herald as part of an effort by TwitterMoms.com in cooperation with Harper Collins Children’s books to encourage children to read. Harper Collins Children’s Books wants to make sure readers are aware of the I Can Read! series for children.   To read comments about this subject go here. 

Please note this disclaimer: “I wrote this blog while participating in the TwitterMoms blogging program to be eligible to get an “I Can Read!” book.  For more information on how you can participate,  go to: http://www.twittermoms.com/forum/topics/share-tips-for-getting-kids-to?utm_source=Twitter

Please understand that I didn’t write this post just because of the book. I wrote it out of my own commitment and City Castles Publishing’s commitment to childrens’ literacy, and my belief that if a child is to be a good reader then he or she must have books and parents to read to him or her.

The strategies in this post, intended to help kids love summer reading, are based on my own experiences and on City Castles Publishing’s effort for Children’s Literacy: Arthur Collins and the Great American Book Race! ™  which can be seen at   http://www.citycastlespublishing.com/mediakit.htm

This literacy effort is based on gifted adult readers reading to kids, and through their reading, demonstrating that reading is fun.  Some parts of this post were drawn  from:   To Book Clubs– a few words from Linda Pilkington, Spring 2010 and also  from  For Parents & Adult Readers: Some Advice.

Some believe that creativity-the urge to make something beautiful- is the artist’s effort to attain immortality.They see the artist’s struggle as an effort to create art that lives on, survives the artist, and stands the test of time. 

For the writer, once beyond publication, there is the hope that your work will be recognized as having merit, that it will be successful, lead to future books and to financial success. But beyond practical hopes for tangible rewards there are also the writer’s dreams.   

While I struggled for the time to write, the  security to write, the privacy to write, the good health to write, the peace of mind to write, and the courage to write, the long list of conditions that I thought  I must attain before I was able to write, a vision enticed me. 

I jettisoned the list of conditions that must be met, and that gave me an excuse not to write, because that vision urged me forward.  The vision gave me courage and  furnished the hope. It brought the strength needed to work no matter what my situation was. And as I wrote, the vision sustained me during the coldest and darkest of mornings.  

My vision was of a girl, back to me, and slumped down in a large comfortable chair. There she sat, in a quiet corner of the living room. There was a lamp on the table behind her. It lit the book that was open in her hands. There she sat, totally absorbed, impatiently turning the pages, anxious to find out what happened next. 

Suddenly, the quiet is broken, her mother calls, impatiently, from the kitchen, ” Emily, I told you an hour ago to get ready for bed.  You have school tomorrow, now get your nose out of that book and go to bed.”

The girl startles because she has been lost in the story. She scowls, makes a face, and closes the book . For just a moment she pauses and looks around. 

She was lost in the world of the book. For a time, that world was more real to her than the chair she sat in, more real than the room, even more real than her mother in the kitchen, and she needs a moment to acclimatize-before she crosses that magic breach between fantasy and  reality.

For awhile, Emily, the reader, had lived in another time and place, one filled with humor, or with mystery and adventure.  It was a beautiful place; she came back to reality, reluctantly, with a crash.  

Emily, the passionate reader, is what  moved me to write.  I wanted to be the writer who created that compulsion in the reader to keep turning the pages. I wanted to write the exciting stories that made the devoted reader seek out my books . I wanted to write the kind of books that had made me happy and had given me such delightful worlds to escape to when I was a child.     

Writing those books is what drives me, keeps me struggling on, and gives me such joy as a writer, and yes, it makes me hope that I will write a classic, that rare book, so loved that it will be kept alive by the passionate and devoted reader.

Recent advice to authors is that an event to launch and to celebrate their book is no longer mandatory.  Authors are sometimes told that the launch party does little to promote the book and that scarce resources could be put to better use online, or with other promotional methods.

Before June 26th 2010, I had attended few book events,  and so I can’t claim to be an expert about whether those authors, who are on a strict budget, should go through the work, the worry, and the preparation to host an actual Book Launch,  but I can tell you about my experience, and that might help you to decide.

My book event for Arthur Collins and the Three Wishes wasn’t  glitzy; it was relaxed and fun.  I didn’t want to put on airs or put on a show;  I just wanted to share the joy of the moment, and to let the public and some of the media know that my book was alive and well.

So I gave a party–with quite a lot of  help from my friends, who know very well,  that I couldn’t have done it without them.

Before the event, Caren Swales answered “the where” and the “What shall we serve?” questions by finding Encore Catering ( http://encorecatering.net ) for me.

“Every picture tells a story” and the story of  A Day of Celebration for Arthur Collins and the Three Wishes  is in the pictures that my guests took that day, because the author, who still depends on her favorite 35 mm camera,  came to her own, carefully planned event, with just two pictures left on the roll of film.   

Thanks to my vigilant guardian angel, and to the creativity and competence of my friends, my event is recorded in their wonderful pictures.

Those pictures show castles everywhere; they had to be, because the book was published by City Castles Publishing, and castles are part of the book’s story line. 

So, from the very beginning the theme of the party was decided. There were castles of every kind, color and size, from the castle on The City Castle Greeting Card, to the wooden hobby shop castles that were meant to be colored by children. Among that abundance of castles there were  two that were extra special. 

  One castle was a loan from my friend Derek Meadows, and  is one of his favorite possessions. It is a kingdom, with a castle populated with knights, and kings. There are dozens of other characters that live in the castle, and all  are  perfectly costumed for their roles.  Will Pilkington set the castle up for the guests to marvel at, and many secretly wished for a few minutes alone, to delight in moving the knights and the kings around, and to explore the castle on their own.  

The other castle was a City Castle Cake that was modeled on, and was nearly a duplicate of  the castle shown on the City Castle Welcome Signs and in The City Castle Greeting Card,  shown in the online store at http://citycastles.com/cards.html  The cake was perfect, and delicious in every way.

The pictures show that my book’s  “low-key event” had  spectacular moments.

Pictures record Andi Pearson’s presentation, which brought clarity to the Arthurian Legend, and Caren Swales’ explanation of  City Castles effort for children’s literacy. They capture the  expert and exciting young fencers, John Luke and Alex Bucuvalas from The Denver Fencing Center ( http://www.denverfencingcenter.com ) and their fast moving demonstration.   

Some of my favorite pictures show my husband, Will, steady, and smiling as he helped me throughout the day. I dubbed him “Sir Will Pilkington, Knight with the Bravest of Hearts. 

Another picture shows Ann Christopher, smiling brightly as she dashed about, placing the flower arrangements she had just made, and rearranging the tables, in a flash, during the final few minutes before the guests arrived. 

All of my friends, and presenters, brought that same sureness, that wonderful confidence to my event.

The funny thing is that I went to my event with an unchangeable inner calm.  Part of that was because of the  excellent advice and help  from my daughter, Micah. There was support from my sisters, Marian Coen and Carol Fahey, and from every family member who had bought my book. A great deal of strength came from my friend, and encourager, Nicole Meadows, whose e-mails, cards, and calls, stood behind me, and reminded me that I was well-able to make this event a success.

When the day arrived my confidence remained strong, because  I was certain that the people, who had so generously offered to help, would, with their talent and energy, give their all for the event.  That confidence comes from years of knowing some of them, and from a strong intuition about the others.

The pictures show that:  I got to tell my story about the book and that I read some of it to begin the effort for children’s literacy, Arthur Collins and the Great American book Race!  

The pictures show that we had  fun at the event. For this I thank the guests, because the fun of any party comes from the people who attend. Fun comes from kind hearts, and from minds willing to listen, and ready to be entertained. 

And so, my answer to the question:  was it  worth it to  have an actual book launch?

The answer is: for me it was worth it.

It was worth it  because,  beyond receiving the gifts of  support,  help and kindness from my friends, and beyond the good food, and pleasant atmosphere, of  Encore Catering . And, even beyond the presentations for  my book, the day was worth it  because– some thing truly had changed. 

Basic facts had changed.

The very least thing that had been accomplished, because of the time and effort spent in pursuit of guests and the media,  was that many more people now knew about my book.

The best thing that happened on June 26, was that I saw my book in a different way.

Because:  People had cared enough to attend the event and learn, in person, about the book and about my effort on behalf of children’s literacy. 

There had been tangible results from my book launch party that hadn’t occurred before.

Due to  my efforts I had received the promise of a book review from a Denver newspaper. I had been offered opportunites to speak to other groups about my book.  And, finally, I had actually watched people buy my book, and this was different than getting orders from Amazon or from my web sites.

For a long time I had felt that my book had value. But  it meant something to watch people buy the book and show by that purchase that they agreed with me:  my book has value.

 June 22, 2010.

Today, if you did a search on Google, for my book, Arthur Collins and the Three Wishes,  you might come across many listings for: A Day of Celebration for Arthur Collins! 

 On June 26th at 11:30 we will have a belated birthday party & book launch for my book. And all I can think is: I am going to enjoy this because it has been a long time coming.

We will do some of the things that are usually on the program for book events.  I’ll read from my book, and we will have some short speeches. But we will change the pattern, and add some excitement with a fencing demonstration.

The demonstration is, officially, part of the event  because in the second book: Arthur Collins Master of the Mirror,  Arthur takes fencing lessons. Unofficially, the fencing is a gift to myself.  

I who have enjoyed the grace of the sword fights in old movies, and have loved Cyrano de Bergerac, will hear those exciting words: En garde! To me, fencing has always seemed symbolic of  life and its many battles– maybe exciting, but always risky; these dangerous encounters are frightening and leave you exhausted..and often without the enemy being vanquished- too much like real life.  

To most of the people who attend book events, they are pleasant intervals: a reading, a few speeches, and maybe a chance to have their book signed, and then a nice lunch, but to the writers, just as fencing is to me, book events are much more.

They are the culmination of days of work that they have given to their book. The launch is a pause, not the stopping point, because writing a book and making it a success can take years of fighting and effort, but it is a time of gratitude and of celebration for having come so far.  

It is important for a writer to have those pauses, times to reflect on what she has done, and to remember what it took in effort and in hours to bring her to this point.  She is tempted to whisper Psalm 51 8 to herself:  Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. 

Writing is work that isn’t paid by the hour, so unless fate smiles, and the publishing world relents, gathers you to its bosom, makes you the latest American Writer Idol, and markets your book with a vengence–the writer fights for each small success.

At writing conferences writers tell of the years spent, writing, submitting, then, re-writing. They tell of the sacrifices  it took before they  finally got their book into print and of the small financial return. In the tough world of publishing, a run-away-best-seller is a miracle; a highly successful author is a rarity.

So that day of celebration must be savored, not just by the audience, it must be a day of  great “Joy and Gladness” for the writer, and for her family and friends. 

She must resolve that it will be joyful  for all of her “Heart’s Dearest'”,  and she will struggle to tell them that the Celebration day is theirs, as much as hers, because it would never have happened without their love and support.