Reading is A Personal Affair

       Read me this story," said a three-year-old boy to the visitor in the nursery school. The visitor, who was not well acquainted with small children, looked at the book, and answered, "I'll get you a better book. This one is really too old for you." "No," was the determined response, "this is the story I want. It says 'spank.'" And sure enough, as the visitor read, she came to the part that especially appealed to this choosy youngster, the part where the poor little duck was naughty and got spanked by an unfeeling adult.

       Preferences begin at a very early age. Certain words or ideas appeal, others fall flat. Some books can be read and reread, the youngster running eagerly to his parents, "Read to me!" Others are never asked for after the first reading. Although there are some topics and qualities in books which appeal to a large number of young readers, taste cannot be standardized for them any more than it can for adults. Children from the youngest to adolescents have strong individual tastes; that is, they do if they have had a wholesome reading diet. If, on the contrary, their reading material has consisted chiefly of books bought for a whole class-books to be read by everyone, the chances are great that what they have cultivated is a flat taste or distaste for reading. 

       A teacher overheard one of her pupils who had shown no interest in reading say, "If I had my own money, I'd subscribe to Popular Mechanics." What a shock; a disinterested reader yearning to subscribe to a magazine! The teacher's real surprise should have been in the fact that despite a disregard for his reading needs for several years, this boy still wanted to read. 

      The hand-me-down method has been common practice for too long. We adults, out of our inadequate knowledge of both children and reading materials, have planned what youngsters should read and have bought accordingly. Think how children would look if we used the same insight when buying their clothing! 

      Families, too, may have erred in this respect. It is common knowledge in neighborhood life that some children get their newspaper reading, comics, in particular, at a neighbor's home. They do so because their own home doesn't cater to their need for comics. Of course, there are some avid comics readers who tour the neighborhoods on Sunday, reading the comics of all mystery are fascinating papers delivered in each section. This goes on in villages as well as in New York City apartments. If Pat knows that his family buys a Sunday paper partly because it contains a comic section especially for him (the rest of the family, of course, will read it too), he is more happily adjusted within the family reading circle. The same is true of the magazine selection. There should be at least one periodical which is the child's choice. When children tell what books they hope to receive as birthday or holiday gifts, their requests should be honored, if possible. Sharing in the selection of newspapers, magazines, and books is an excellent stimulant to discrimination in reading. It whets the reading appetites of children, and arouses an added personal interest in these materials. 

      As papers, magazines, books, and pamphlets come into a home and grow in quantity, an orderly system of keeping and discarding must be developed. At four a child can learn to be a good "librarian" of his own collection of books; he can even advise adults exactly on which shelf to locate a certain book and where to return it.

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