Shannon was amazing. She was honest and smart, and had some awesome things to say about literacy in your family. There were a few things that really resonated with me especially since I have been preparing to have a family in the future.
My favorite piece of advice from her was to give your boys a book about a girl every once in a while. I am in no way a feminist. I love wearing dresses and jewelry, cooking, and being a housewife/mother sounds like the best thing that I could ever do. But this really hit me. Girls read ALL books.. The Princess Diaries and Hatchet... The Babysitter's Club and Goosebumps.... but if a boy decides he wants to read Pride and Prejudice he's mocked by everyone at school (boys and girls alike). What is wrong with this picture? Shanon's advice: Give your boys a book about a girl about every 5th time or so you buy one. This doesn't mean it has to have "Princess" in the title, but just a book where the main character is a girl, and it doesn't have much to go with war/sports/"boy things".
There are so many benefits to this! 1.Your boys read about more than just sports and battle. 2. They might learn a little bit about girls and how the think. 3. They will be a good example/friend when other boys might be criticized about what they're reading. 4. They will probably like it! My husband liked reading The Host with me, even though he was skeptical about it being by the Twilight author.
A few other awesome ideas from Mrs. Shannon Hale (and some other panel members) on how to help your family love to read:
- Read for pleasure in front of your kids, not just in bed at night
- Read books as an entire family, have the little ones act it out
- Read out-loud to even your teenagers and discuss them
- Make sure Dad reads to the kids (for some reason that makes it "cooler" to read)
- Buy your kids at least one book each for Christmas
- Have family movie nights AND family reading nights
- Support libraries by purchasing real books, not always electronic ones
