The problem I have with graphic novels is this…my sins were both advanced in reading..till graphic novels…now it is ALL they will read..and as such the naturally boost they would get for English skills has been missed ..and now their reading levels have slowed down, they have missed time embedding writing skills and now all they will read is comics etc
.not great for university level and this was thanks to an English teacher telling them graphic novels were good when I was trying to enlist her help getting them to read books

Telling her that something is unsuitable doesn’t kill her passion for reading at all and I confess I did confiscate her Horrid Henry books for a while because they seemed to instigate a particularly nasty bout of behaviour and name calling towards her sister. She had them back when she’d learnt that just because Henry gets away with it, it doesn’t mean it’s appropriate behaviour for her.

I also have gripes with the Rainbow Magic books (she moved on from these a while ago, but her sister enjoys them now) which are formulaic in the extreme, but I wouldn’t ban them. Rather I just encourage a different book after one has been finished instead of moving straight on to another RM book.

Our middle child (5) is doing well with her reading, but isn’t an instinctive reader like her sister. She struggles a bit with words that have to be learnt by sight. She also wasn’t as keen generally on learning to read. But we’ve encouraged her by letting her read anything she shows an interest in (tickets, menus, signposts etc). I think if children can see the purpose of learning to read it ignites a spark. Now, with this encouragement and some books that have fired her imagination, I can see her starting to develop a real love of reading and it’s great.

We’ve always had books around and they’ve seen us reading and know that we love reading. The television has a place in our house, but it isn’t allowed to take over. The only time they don’t have a bedtime story is when they’ve had a late night. I was interested to hear from a teacher at school that being a good reader doesn’t just impact on literacy skills, but also has an effect on numeracy and other areas too. When I run an author workshop in school I can pretty much pick out the children who are avid readers by their vocabulary and ideas, though the other children can have good ideas teased out of them too given half a chance!

I missed this comment. Yes! A million times yes.