Eau Claire (WQOW) - What's your favorite children's book?
I ask that question of you knowing that you're an adult, not a child, and therein lies the wonder and the mystery.
If we have any relationship with kid's books it's because we were read to as a child or we read to our children, or both. Scientific studies prove that it's good for children to be read to; it helps them not only learn to read, but it encourages them to become lovers of books and lifelong readers, and it sets the groundwork for future success in life.
Yet a recent study done in the United Kingdom says that twenty to forty percent of children there have never been read to by a parent in their own home. Why? Partly because TV and video games are an irresistible draw for young people, and partly out of habit…It's also proven that non-readers beget non-readers.
Rob Reid is our area's ambassador for children's lit. He's written thirteen books on the matter himself, and is working on his next, and his next next, and the one after that. When it comes to promoting books and reading, Rob is a living, breathing Reading Rainbow. He knows books. He talks books. He loves books. He brings stories alive in his interactive programs. Kids love him, and so do adults.
In our conversation, he reflects upon the power of children's lit, shares his all-time favorite books, plumbs the depths of kid's lits' many complicated layers, and ponders the future of printed words on paper.
Oh, and by the way…My favorite children's books are The Phantom Tollbooth, The Chronicles of Narnia, Horton Hears a Who, and Cinnabar the One O'Clock Fox – among many others. Depends upon who's doing the reading.
Rob Reid, In Person. Only on News 18. Write on.
