Here are my ten bookish lessons for my young daughters. What are the bookish lessons you’ve taught your favorite young people?
Reading starts early. I’m sure my kids remember me reading The Brothers Karamazov out loud when they were in the womb. I’m planning to quiz them about it tomorrow.
If I fall asleep while reading my kids a bedtime story, they know it is entirely appropriate to cuddle with me and gently stroke my hair until I wake up. Inappropriate actions include prying open my eyelids, poking me in the ribs, or yelling in my ear; such actions will result in no dessert for all eternity.
My older daughter is the proud owner of a Kindle, which we stock up with e-books from the library. She knows to never, ever drop her Kindle in water. She will not get a new one, even if her birthday is coming up.
Reading during meals is fair game in our household, especially if it keeps the kids from throwing food at each other or complaining that everything on their plates is disgusting.
My kids know to always keep a book in their backpack. I tell them the extra weight is good conditioning for when they read Wild by Cheryl Strayed in their 20s or 30s then leave on a soul-seeking hike along the Pacific Coast Trail. {Unrelated side note: I’m not the kind of mom who will carry my kids’ backpacks for them, regardless of how little or cute they are. If they complain, I make them carry my backpack too, and it has a lot more books in it than theirs does.}
Read popular and current books, but read classic ones, too. I expect them to know how to make a smoker (Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder), come up with creative weekend ideas (The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright), and how to make money by collecting worms for fishermen (Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary).
Checking out the limit of fifty books from the library is completely normal. We can always use our second library card if we need more than that. Plus, we have that third library card for book emergencies as they arise. Preparedness is the key for every book lover.
Make friends with librarians and other book-loving adults by baking them cookies, making them bracelets, and drawing them pictures. They will repay you in book recommendations for the rest of your life. (And the pictures you draw will stay pinned up on the circulation desk forever.)
Used and independent bookstores are magical places. It is a necessary stop in every place we visit, and my kids sure do take advantage of my inability to say no at bookstores.
Reading while commuting is a necessary life skill, a skill that I am very proud to have modeled for them and witnessed their mastery. Watching them navigate city streets and subways on our daily forty-five minute commute make me feel like I’ve taught them everything they need to know to get through life.
