Many of the activities on these pages may require adult supervision.
Be sure to tell a grown-up about what you're planning and ask for permission before getting started.

So often one hears kids complain they're bored, have nothing to do, can't go anywhere, can't do the interesting things that older kids and grown-ups do. What I can't understand is why kids who are bored don't read. Through books you can find out anything, go anywhere, and learn what all different kinds of people are thinking and doing.

There are many great books around in bookstores, in school, and at the library, available in hardbound and paperback covers. Sometimes I think school gives the act of reading a studious aura that it doesn't deserve. Reading a good book is never a chore. It's an adventure. It's like sticking your nose into someone else's business. It's like hearing a great big juicy piece of gossip. It's like taking a trip to a foreign country or into the past.

If you haven't read a book lately, you're missing something fun.

Can you guess who this is? *

Picture Books for Superkids Ages 5-6

You can never grow too old for picture books. When you're five or six, you can enjoy having these read to you, or perhaps you can read them yourselves. When you're a few years older, you can read them to a younger brother or sister or to a child you are baby-sitting. Someday when you are a grown-up you may have the pleasure of reading one of these books to a child on your lap who likes the same books you do.

Easy to Read Books

Easy-to-read books are written for beginning readers. When you're ready to read on your own, ask your librarian to show you where the easy-to-read books are and which ones are easiest.

Novels for Superkids Ages 8-15

If you have a choice between reading or seeing the TV film of Charlotte's Web, please pick the book over the TV show. If you've already seen the film of any well-known book, read the book too. There's something intimate about the experience of reading a good book that can't be matched except for the very best of films.

Starting a Library of Your Own

Nameplates

In the front of your favorite books you can paste your own nameplate, showing that the book belongs to you. Should you lend a book, the person you lend it to won't forget to return it. Decorate plain white stickers purchased in a stationery, office or discount store by drawing a border around the outside and printing your name neatly inside.

Reading to Others

Library Reading Hour

If you are a good reader and enjoy reading to younger children, you might volunteer your services at your local library to read aloud to small groups of preschoolers during a regular library reading hour. Ask your librarian about such a program and if you may help.

Tutoring

If you like to work with young children, you might be able to help them learn to read. Ask the first-grade teachers in your school if there are children you could tutor. You wouldn't have to teach reading skills the way a teacher does, but you could listen to a child read and help with difficult words. You are your friends might want to form a tutoring club.

*It's me, Jean Marzollo

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