Raising Readers — How to Nurture a Child’s Love of Books

Daley opens the preface with her own childhood: evenings when her father read to her and her brothers, and her mother, a teacher-librarian, filling the house with quality books. When her first child was born she was shocked to see that people around her didn't read to their babies. As deputy chair of the Children's Book Council of Australia she was often asked, «What's the right age to start reading to children?» — to her, the answer was obvious: from birth. Yet she tries to remember that not everyone was raised as she was, and presents the book as both a guide for families and a resource for educators.

Section one starts with babies: shortly after birth they respond to sounds, from three or four months they reach for objects, and they chew books, turn them upside down and stare at bright, contrasting colours. The importance of songs and nursery rhymes is stressed. This part is simple and solid: reading is not a «lesson» but time spent with a baby, full of voice and touch.

The pages on bedtime reading are the book's most heartfelt. Daley admits that as a single parent on exhausted evenings she sometimes started the ritual reluctantly, but found it was her own «pause button»: no phone calls, no dishes — just the children and the book. Her daughters, who never answer «what did you do today?», suddenly start talking about problems at school after a book about friendship. Practical solutions are offered for the difficulties: if time is short, grandparents can read the same book over a tablet; for reluctant readers, a book matched to their interests — a football story for a football fan.

The idea of «incidental reading» is simple but effective: if fitness experts talk about incidental exercise, why shouldn't a librarian talk about incidental reading? Book baskets all over the house, books in the nappy bag, a «mobile library» in the car — the «Car Library» her daughter made out of a shoebox is a lovely detail. Reading road signs, restaurant menus and supermarket catalogues together is also modelling reading. The example of the Pyjama Foundation, whose volunteers read to children in foster care, shows reading's social value.

Weaknesses: the book is very Australia-centred — most of the recommended books, awards and foundations will be unfamiliar elsewhere and often untranslated. The assumption that every school has a teacher-librarian won't match many realities. Some sections are lists and don't go deep. Even so, its spirit and practical ideas are universal — and few topics could suit a book site better.

• Personal experience and practical tips from a librarian-mother's perspective
• Short sections, lists and «how-to» guides
• Short guest contributions from authors and educators, extensive book lists