Can passion be passed
along from parent to child? Can you, in other words,
make someone love baseball, ballet or books? Of course
you can't - but that doesn't stop parents from trying.
Jennie Nash was one of those parents - a parent so obsessed
about getting her kids to read that her desire sometimes
strayed into desperation; her hope often became an obsession;
and instead of helping, her resolve got in the way.
In the end, she found that, like so many of the things
we do as parents, passing along a passion for reading
happens in the push and pull of digging in and letting
go, day in and day out, both because of and in spite
of our efforts.
Nash shares stories and misadventures
from the years when her young daughters were learning
what it meant to have a relationship with words--and
she was learning to let them. She reminds us how the
magic moments happen in their own sweet time, by being
together in the presence of good books and seeing each
child as unique.
Each chapter of Raising a Reader
ends with personal, practical tips and games that spring
straight from the narrative. A comprehensive index discusses
many of the books Nash has enjoyed with her children,
providing a year's worth of titles for parents and their
children to explore.
