A Family of Readers: The Book Lover's Guide to Children's and Young Adult Literature Book

Two of the most trusted reviewers in the field join with top authors, illustrators, and critics in a definitive guide to choosing books for children—and nurturing their love of reading.

A FAMILY OF READERS is the definitive resource for parents interested in enriching the reading lives of their children. It’s divided into four sections:

1. Reading to Them:
Choosing and sharing board books and picture books with babies and very young children.
2. Reading with Them:
Launching the new reader with easy readers and chapter books.
3. Reading on Their Own:
Exploring what children read—and how they read—by genre and gender.
4. Leaving Them Alone:
Respecting the reading privacy of the young adult.

Roger Sutton knows how and why children read. He must, as the editor in chief of THE HORN BOOK, which since 1924 has been America’s best source for reviews of books for young readers. But for many parents, selecting books for their children can make them feel lost. Now, in this essential resource, Roger Sutton and Martha V. Parravano, executive editor at the magazine, offer thoughtful essays that consider how books are read to (and then by) young people. They invite such leading authors and artists as Maurice Sendak, Katherine Paterson, Margaret Mahy, and Jon Scieszka, as well as a selection of top critics, to add their voices about the genres they know best. The result is an indispensable readers’ companion to everything from wordless board books to the most complex and daring young adult novels.

Publishers Weekly

Not a children's book, but a book for anyone who has ever loved children's books, this collection of essays and interviews is designed to help parents foster a love of reading in children, while providing insight into the craft of children's bookmaking. Collected by Sutton and Parravano, editors of the Horn Book (where some of the book's content previously appeared), the contributions--Jon Scieszka on book design, Sarah Ellis on writing humor, Bruce Brooks and Virginia Euwer Wolff on Holden Caulfield, among others--are grouped into sections that mirror the reading life of a child: reading to children becomes reading with them, which gives way to their growth as independent readers. "By the time a kid is ready to read on his own, he's ready to... read on his own," writes Sutton. "Your job is, essentially, to let him." Sutton and Parravano also contribute commentary, discussing the best books for all ages and reading levels, and what makes them so. It's an indispensible guide at a time when, as Sutton writes, "debates about what qualifies as ‘reading' are as noisy as the concurrent fights over what can be called a 'family.'" (Sept.)