Bringing Up Bookmonsters

Introducing: Bookmonsters! The confident, fun-loving, and academically advanced species also known as “children.” Learning to read is a monstrously important milestone in a child’s life. For parents who aren’t sure how to make it happen, approaching that milestone can be very, very scary. But it doesn’t have to be.

In Bringing Up Bookmonsters, wife-and-husband team Amber and Andy Ankowski show parents how easy it can be to get their kids to develop a long-lasting love of reading, with no flashcards, timers, or quizzes required. It’s never too early to promote literacy. The Ankowskis provide dozens of tactics to help promote literacy from the time a child is born through their early school years. With research-based tips, parents will learn to:

• Talk to a Bookmonster: How to communicate with your child. Language acquisition and literacy are closely linked. Strategies for talking to kids to build language skills
• Listen to a Bookmonster: Research shows that children develop better language skills when parents are responsive. Strategies include interpreting your child’s preverbal signs and responding to their roars
• Build a Bookmonster habitat: Start building an at-home library. Strategies include how to make the most out of fewer books
• Adapt screen time for Bookmonsters: How to keep your budding bookmonster from turning into a zoned-out zombie. Strategies include using technology to promote literacy
• Work a Bookmonster’s memory: How to teach “sight words” and strategies to practice identifying them in the real world
• Make your Bookmonster laugh: Learning is easier with jokes! Wordplay helps teach valuable language lessons. Strategies include jokes for kids of all ages
• Teach a Bookmonster to spell, to write, to identify weird words, and much more.