If you want your children to grow up to be strong readers who love books, you have to find books that grab their interest and help them connect with topics they enjoy. Recently, my seven year old neighbor girl was having difficulty with learning to reading in the first grade. Her mother was worried because she was struggling and often told her mother that she did not like to read. In talking about the problem, we identified that the little girl loved to watch a television program called “Merlin” and seldom missed it. We connected the Merlin television show to the Magic Tree House series of books set in Camelot by author, Mary Pope Osborne. The star of these books is of course, none other than her favorite character – Merlin! The little girl is fascinated by these wonderful new books and begs to read every day in her new “special books.” Her mother says that her reading has dramatically improved and the Merlin stories are a regular part of their bedtime ritual. What a wonderful way to build strong fluency skills in a young reader.
