Let it be something kids can do when they feel like it. Show them how reading can be fun. And never make summer reading “homework.”

Help your child make a connection between books and the simpler pleasures of childhood. Then this pleasure in reading will last a lifetime. To take a “summer approach” to reading:

• Suggest that your child reread a favorite book. Then find another book by the same author. Or find one on the same topic.

• Connect books with other summer activities—sports books for a summer league player, for instance, or camping books for a camper.

• Invite your child to read the newspaper with you.

• Let your child stay up past bedtime when a book is too good to put down.

• Start your child on series fiction or thrillers. These “page-turners” hook kids into a reading habit.

• Encourage a change of venue. Read books at the beach or pool, in a tent, or on the road.

• Watch movies, videos, and plays based on children’s books. Read the book and compare it with what you saw.

• Share your favorite books and magazines with your child.

• Use picture stories to reminisce with your child about your own childhood summers.

• Encourage your child to retell stories or story parts.

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