HOW TO RAISE A READER

Savvy counsel and starter lists for fretting parents.

New York Times Book Review editor Paul (My
Life With Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues, 2017, etc.)
and Russo, the children’s book editor for that publication, provide
standard-issue but deftly noninvasive strategies for making books and reading
integral elements in children’s lives. Some of it is easier said than done, but
all is intended to promote “the natural, timeless, time-stopping joys of
reading” for pleasure. Mediumwise, print reigns supreme, with mild approval for
audio and video books but discouraging words about reading apps and the hazards
of children becoming “slaves to the screen.” In a series of chapters keyed to
stages of childhood, infancy to the teen years, the authors supplement their
advice with short lists of developmentally appropriate titles—by their lights,
anyway: Ellen Raskin’s Westing Game on a list for teens?—all
kitted out with enticing annotations. The authors enlarge their offerings with
thematic lists, from “Books That Made Us Laugh” to “Historical Fiction.” In
each set, the authors go for a mix of recent and perennially popular favorites,
leaving off mention of publication dates so that hoary classics like Janice May
Udry’s A Tree Is Nice seem as fresh as David Wiesner’s Flotsam and
Carson Ellis’ Du Iz Tak? and sidestepping controversial titles
and themes in the sections for younger and middle-grade readers—with a few
exceptions, such as a cautionary note that some grown-ups see “relentless
overparenting” in Margaret Wise Brown’s Runaway Bunny. Laura
Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series doesn’t make the cut except for a passing
reference to its “troubling treatment of Indians.” The teen lists tend to be
edgier, salted with the provocative likes of Art Spiegelman’s Maus and
Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give, and a nod to current demands
for more LGBTQ and other #ownvoices books casts at least a glance beyond the
mainstream. Yaccarino leads a quartet of illustrators who supplement the
occasional book cover thumbnails with vignettes and larger views of children
happily absorbed in reading.