Write a leaflet for parents in which you persuade them about childrens reading from a specific point of view.

by katerinadrakos (student)

Write a leaflet for parents in which you persuade them about children’s reading from a specific point of view.

Seeing is Believing, Reading is Achieving- The truth about fiction books.

What is a perfect family? Picture this. A mother and her daughter, both literate. Her mother forces her daughter to read complicated and factual books so that it improves her academic studies. The daughter complies, and does whatever her mother asks her to. They are the model family, that you should aspire to be. Or are they?

90% of illiterate children all over the world do not go to schools, then universities, thus, getting low paid and uninteresting jobs. 95% of children who do read end up with well paid and fairly interesting jobs. Those facts are commonly known to be true and a wide variety of people are aware of them. But, what they don’t know is that 10% of those children who do read and have done impressivly in all subjects, read something more specific. Something that when you read, feels like you are immersing yourself in the fairytale world of childhood. Something that feels so magical but at the same time teaches you so much. Something that every child should experience as it is the greatest feeling in the world of reading. But what is it?

Something Missing?

“To read stories is to fly: It is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experiences and the fruit of many inquiries”- Roald Dahl.

Fiction. This so called “perfect family” did not read fiction, therefore limiting their expertise. Reading fiction reveals the real and rare person inside you. It gives you a doorway to a new world. Do you want the best for your child? What kind of a parent would you be if you kept this powerful discovery from their knowledge?

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Something Missing?

Why read fiction?

Excersising your brain

Reading fiction excersises your brain. Simple. It improves the connections, and therefore deepens the significance and the greater the understanding. Not only it helps children in English but in other subjects too! The brain is being pulled and stretched until it groans that it cannot take any more. But no matter how much you push it it will come back, bigger, better and stronger.

Empathy

Take the book “Bridge to Terabithia” by Katherine Patterson. Beautiful book. Heart-wrenching, imaginative and completely creative. But utterly fiction. The book is a masterpiece in itself but apart from being so enjoyable to read, it helps your children develop empathy. Children relate to the fictional people in the books, and form a bond with the characters like themselves. It helps them understand a person deep down and recognise anyone in need of help or comfort.

Imagination

Apart from developing your empathy, reading fiction also develops your imagination. As you read stories, you imagine the characters and their surroundings. You get images of what the characters say and even feel, all inside your head. A good example of this is the Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan. The language in this book is bright, clear and descriptive. You can envision anything you would want; a thousand fireworks bursing in the air to form a flash of colour or a dark, drab and dank cave, portrayed in a way to make you feel terrified.

Vocabulary

Studies have been done and they show that children who read fiction and take Vocabulary exams do 14% better than normal readers. That is because it broadens your vocabulary and widens your knowledge. As Steve Jobs once said:

“Life- transforming ideas have always come to me through books and stories”

Your vocabulary can be developed in an enjoyable way. As you read your fiction stories you hardly take notice of your brain storing up the words to use later, but instead, you drink in the words and taste the sentences which pour out from your book. So while you savour the true meaning of these words you keep them in your head for when the right time comes along and you can impress people with the sheer vastness of your broadended vocabulary.

Tick, Tock

What is concentration? The ability to focus on one task without getting distracted. Have you never felt distraction pulling at your sleeve in class as you daydream about a parallel universe in which you were having fun? Or stare at the clock ticking and ticking. Tick Tock, Tick Tock. Counting the seconds until the bell rings? Well if you did, then so do your children. To prevent that you can give them a fictional book to read and they will gladly thank you for it. No more teachers baring their teeth at them for looking out the window, now they can focus and get the task finished in record time. Give them a book so that they can improve their concentration. A book a day keeps the teacher away! Sudents who read fiction as well as normal books do 10% better than normal children in maths exams. This proves that it does indeed improve your concentration.

“A capacity and taste for reading gives access to whatever has been already discovered by others”- Abraham Lincoln