How to encourage reading

Offer a Magazine to a Reluctant Reader

Posted on by Julia Tomiak / 8 Comments

You might not expect a word nerd to say this, but I respect the fact that not everyone loves books like I do. 
However, I do believe everyone needs to be able to read.  And can benefit from reading.
I’m not alone.  Walter Dean Myers, our current Ambassador for Young People’s literature said it best –  reading in today’s society is a necessary skill.  Not optional.  Necessary. 
So how do we entice reluctant readers to hone their skills?  We find them something they want to read- and realize that might notbe a book.
 

Reading Preferences vary by Gender

According to education.com, by high school, boys are less likely to read for pleasure than girls.  And if you ask them why, they’ll tell you things like “I don’t have time,” “It’s boring,” or “I’d rather do something else.”  (I’m going to take a guess here that those other things involve either a ball or a video game controller of some kind.) 
While we shouldn’t make generalizations about guys and reading (I live with three males who love pleasure reading), I found interesting information from the study quoted at education.com:
  • Boys prefer magazines, newspapers, and non-fiction
  • Boys enjoy reading about sports or hobbies; some also like fantasy/science fiction
  • Boys enjoy visual texts and graphic novels more than girls.  (A graphic novel tells a story in comic book format.  Result:  more pictures than text.  Lots of graphic novels are becoming available now; even Twilight was “translated” into a graphic novel.)
  • Along the “visual” lines, boys will judge a book by its cover (not necessarily the text on the back)

Have you seen this in your life?  My friend Michelle tells me her husband will never open a book, but he pours over his hunting and fishing magazines. 
Even if these observations don’t exactly fit your experience, maybe we can take this information and creatively find new ways to pull our hesitant friends, spouses, and children into the wonderful world of reading.  There are so many more options out there – we should remember that “reading” doesn’t just mean “books”. 
 

Grab them with a magazine

With that in mind, let me recommend a popular periodical in our house:  National Geographic Kids.  Packed with interesting photos, NG Kids usually features a behind the scenes look into an upcoming movie release, as well as articles on the environment, science, and a regular page called “Weird but True.”  (Did you know that a man once blew a bubble gum bubble that was bigger than a basketball?  My daughter told me this after I scolded her for continuous bubble blowing.) 
I’m considering giving magazine subscriptions for birthday gifts now- a great way to encourage reading that lasts for 12 months! 
If you know someone who doesn’t like to read, stop at the store and find a magazine about something that interests them – maybe a hobby or a sport, but not a gossip magazine, please.  Then, leave it lying where they can find it.  See if they pick it up.  Tell me what happens.

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Julia
Improving vocabulary

Vocabulary from the Novel “Little Bee”

Posted on by Julia Tomiak / 7 Comments

I need help this week in the vocabulary department.  I’m not saying that the great Chris Cleave incorrectly used a word, but I don’t understand how he used it.  See what you think.

In Cleave’s novel, Little Bee, everything spins around an unusual meeting on an African beach between two young African girls, an armed guard, a British couple on holiday, and a band of hired killers.  Doesn’t sound good, does it?

Here’s the piece I’m struggling with, told by Sarah, a British woman and one of the primary narrators of the novel.  She is describing her very dangerous confrontation with a man holding a machete:

I cringed away from the man, from the way he looked at me- now patiently, as if encouraging a slow learner; now furiously; now with a pregnant, vespertine calm.

At this point, what do you think “vespertine” means?  Guess, if you must.

Here is the info from Webster’s:

vespertine \’ves-pər-tīn\ adj, from the Latin vesperinus, from vesper, meaning evening; of, relating to, or occurring in the evening; (biology) feeding, flying, or blossoming in the evening

Aha!  The good Catholic in me should have recognized “vespers”, or evening prayers.  (Vesper is also the name of the Bond girl in Casino Royale, but I digress…)  However, what does “evening” have to do with the crazy man looking at Sarah?  This sentence comes from a scene that occurs at sunrise!

Perhaps I’m confused by the adjective “pregnant” next to vespertine.  Here, I think pregnant means “meaningful, momentous.”  Sarah suspects something is about to happen; she’s reading the man’s eyes very closely.  But how does that jive with “vespertine”?

Does anyone out there have some ideas?

Here’s a sentence I think more appropriate for the vocabulary:

I escaped out into the garden near sunset to capture the vespertine blooms of the evening primrose with my camera.

Word Nerd Workout:  Use vespertine in your own sentence.
Also, if you can enlighten me on a subtle meaning of vespertine, in the context I gave above, please leave your ideas in the comments.  Thanks!
Other Word Nerdy Words you may like:
winsome
ersatz
preternaturally

 

Julia
How to encourage reading

Great Read Alouds: The Hobbit

Posted on by Julia Tomiak / 14 Comments

My youngest child turns six soon.  In fact, I just dropped him off for his first day of kindergarten.  He was ready, I was ready, but when he leaned over, squeezed me tight, and pressed a kiss into my cheek, my tears started.  Luckily he got out of the van and walked into school, holding his older sister’s hand, without seeing me cry. 
I had my 12 year old in shot gun to cheer me with some of his prepubescent humor.  Tears dried.
Anyway, we have a birthday coming, and do you know how hard it is to find gifts for child number four?
Extremely.
So, we perused the toy department at Wal-Mart last week, searching for ideas.  I had my five and eight year old boys with me, so can you guess where we focused our search?
Yes, the LEGO isle!
And there, shelved between the Star Wars spaceships and the Lego city trucks, my children discovered Lord of the Rings Legos, released, I assume, in anticipation of the December 14th opening of The Hobbit movie.  We found Helm’s Deep and Weathertop in plastic brick splendor.  Upon request, I named the characters, explained the battles.  
Then my boys looked up at me with eyes full of excitement and anticipation.  “Will you read The Hobbit to us again?”
Oh yes.
The Hobbit is the perfect book for reading aloud.  It has Adventure!  Goblins!  Wizards!  And, best of all, a reluctant hero who overcomes his practical side to indulge his curiosity.   (tweet this)
A prequel to the dense Lord of the Rings books, The Hobbit follows the simple storyline of a quest.  Dwarves have had their precious gold stolen by a particularly vile dragon.  These dwarves want their treasure back, and they enlist Bilbo, upon recommendation from a wizard, to help them.  Hobbits, by nature, do not venture beyond their borders, and they certainly do not engage in dangerous or adventurous behavior.  But Bilbo has enough pluck in him to join the quest, even if he needs a kick in the pants (literally) to get out the door.
Although I know my kids like the plot the best, (there’s nothing like a troll to get your heart racing), my favorite part of The Hobbit is… the hobbit.  Bilbo could listen to his fears and stay at home by the safety of his hearth.  But he leaves his comfortable hobbit hole, and on his journey he discovers that small, simple creatures like hobbits can accomplish very brave, very important things. 
Isn’t that a great message for kids and adults alike?
So my kids now beg me to read The Hobbit each night, and as my son’s birthday approaches, I’m thinking that one of the best gifts I can offer is my time spent with him, sharing this wonderful story.
If only I could master 14 different voices, one for each dwarf and Bilbo himself.  I do my best.
What great read aloud books have you shared with people in your life?  Leave your suggestions in the comments, and thanks for stopping by!
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Julia
Improving vocabulary

My fun new word: “Ersatz”

Posted on by Julia Tomiak / 12 Comments

My end of summer read has been Little Bee by Chris Cleave, which, thankfully, moves much faster than Great Expectations.  Indeed, it contains tragic violence, profound commentary on Western civilization, and plenty of words to stretch my vocabulary.

During a scene in the book, Sarah, one of the narrators, fixes herself a gin and tonic.  (She’s just heard a horrific story, and she needs that G &T.)  Unfortunately, she doesn’t have any real lemons to use, so makes do with a “little squirt of plasticky juice from the Jif lemon in the fridge.”  Later she says,

I finished my G & T and winced at the taste of the ersatz lemon.

Any word with a “z” in it provokes my interest, and although I could guess its meaning, I wanted to know its origin.

 

ersatz \’e(Ə)r- säts\ adj, from German ersatz– noun meaning substitute; being an unusually artificial and inferior substitute or imitation
I think that’s the first word we’ve had with Germanic etymology!
Word Nerd Workout:  Think of a particularly unsatisfying substitute in your life, and write a sentence using ersatz.  Here’s mine:

The ersatz flavor of a “Skinny Cow” ice cream sandwich does not satisfy my husband’s craving for a sweet indulgence after dinner.

 

Julia
How to encourage reading

What Have You Done for Your Library Lately?

Posted on by Julia Tomiak / 12 Comments

I’ve said before that I cannot live without books.  You know what follows that?  I cannot live without my library.
I thought I was a good library patron.  My family visits the library weekly, and we usually walk out of there with a (reusable, made from recycled materials) grocery bag FULL of books.  I joined the “Friends of the Library” and donate gently used books for sales and circulation.
But last month, I found out how much more I could do. 
Every summer the library has a Reading Program, but my family never signs up.  Too much work, too little time.  Besides, my kids love to read and don’t need prizes to motivate them.  But this year, when I explained this to the branch manager, Anita, she shook her head sadly and said, “That’s too bad, because we get funding based on participation in our reading programs.”
Well.  I dropped the overloaded shopping bag to the floor.  If it meant better funding, maybe we could manage.  
Anita went on to share some other interesting facts about our little library system in southwest Virginia, but I’m sure libraries everywhere face similar challenges. (See ilovelibraries.org for more information on how libraries suffer in this tough economic climate):
  • Funding for our library system has dropped significantly in the past five years; last year the budget had $13,000 less for materials- in a small budget, that’s a large proportion of funding
  • Library workers here get paid less than people who work at McDonalds
  • Libraries can use reading programs, or any other programs that generate statistics, to get better funding from state officials
  • The My Coke Rewards Program helps our local branch buy $1500 worth of periodicals each year; patrons just need to bring in their bottle caps/ rewards codes from 12 & 24 packs

Anita and her coworkers, (who get paid minimum wage, remember) spend lots of energy finding alternative sources for funding because they believe communities need libraries.  Many people who live in my county, one of the poorest in Virginia, don’t have money to buy a book, much less a computer.  They use the library to access news, entertainment, and even job applications, things many of us take for granted.   If only bookstores or online resources provided reading material, a fraction of our population would lose access to important information.  And that portion of our society is getting bigger and poorer.

Libraries offer more than books; they offer education, enrichment, and connection to the world.  click to tweet

So, I decided to try and do at least one more thing to help my library; my kids and I will be filling out reading logs this summer.   
Do you think that libraries deserve a little extra effort?  What can you do to support your local branch?  Share your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for stopping by.
You can find more information about libraries at www.ilovelibraries.org and www.ala.org. 
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Julia
Improving vocabulary

Rosetta Stone: More Than a Language Learning Tool

Posted on by Julia Tomiak / 10 Comments

Last Week’s Winners 
First, thanks to all of you who participated in the “Olympic Size Vocab Review” last week!  I got lots of great answers, which impressed me, because I have been staying up WAY TOO LATE to watch the Olympics, and sleep deprivation has clouded my thinking.  I’m glad it’s not affecting you all!  Two people got all of the quiz questions correct.  Congrats to:

  • Lara Britt of Writing Space.  Lara (aka Lori Tian Sailiata) blogs from Hawaii about fulfilling her dream of becoming a self-supported writer, blogger, and creative.  Visit her site for writing tips, personal stories, and insights from paradise.  
  • Amy Makechnie of MaisyMak.  Amy shares tales about mothering four children, as well as entertaining stories about running, writing, and great reads!  
Many of you were very close to getting all four answers correct, but two questions were tricky.  Remember that the antiquated definition of portmanteau is luggage, specifically a carrying bag.  And, the etymology of Olympics reads like a narrative of the Olympic torch relay:  Olympiad comes from Middle English -> Middle French   -> Latin -> Greek in reference to Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympic games.  Kudos to Lara for recognizing the -iad implied a time component (specifically four years).
This Week’s Word Nerd Note

I’m going to take a break this week from highlighting a new vocab word to share instead an interesting fact.  At the beginning of the summer, I considered ordering Rosetta Stone software to teach my children Spanish, hoping that we could keep our brains active with this program. Silly me, I thought that “Rosetta Stone” was named after the person who started the program.  My eldest son quickly corrected me.


“No Mom, it’s a stone from ancient Egypt.  It had to do with translations or something.”

Really?  Well, I Googled it.  According to The British Museum website, soldiers in Napoleon’s army found the Rosetta Stone while digging a fort near the town of el-Rashid (Rosetta).  The stone has a decree inscribed upon it in three different languages: hieroglyphic (used by the priests), demotic (native script), and Greek (the language of the administration).  Since it contains both Greek and hieroglyphs, the stone provides the key to understanding hieroglyphs in the modern age.  

And how did my son know this?  From reading Rick Riordian’s books.  Thank you, Mr. Riordan.  

What interesting information have you learned from a book lately?  Share your comments below!

Julia