I feel perplexed about this book. I love reading and getting my kid to develop the same passion is something I care about (a lot!). I profoundly think reading makes us better, and helps us experience a richer life by understanding people that don’t look like or think like us.

Reading for Our Lives provides many actionable ideas to assist our children toward literacy, for sure. But Nature makes play the essential way to learn, especially for small kids. Even if the author recommends keeping it fun, using games and other techniques to engage children, I feel disappointed. It’s hard to put words on why books are so special to me but I’m pretty sure the subtle reasons are different from the focus on this book.

Reading for Our Lives is the result of a parent on a mission to raise a reader and what you are reading is her recipe. I urge you to continue experimenting. We must not just raise better readers, we want our kids to be avid readers, feeling the indescribable joy after completing a great book and the insatiable thirst to start a new one. There is probably no recipe for that.