Children who are exposed to books and reading are more likely to be readers as adults, so fostering a love of books in your child’s early years is vital.

On my bookshelf

Think back to your own childhood books and remember all the reasons why you loved them.

Some of my favourites were:

• Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree
• Nan Hayden Agle’s Susan, Serena and the Cat’s Place
• Robert C. O’Brien’s The Silver Crown
• Betty Brock’s No Flying in the House
• Ruth Park’s Playing Beatie Bow

Then when I had my own child, together we discovered:

• Barbara Cooney’s Miss Rumphius
• Louise Pfanner’s Louise Builds a Boat
• Cat Balloon
• Jim Poulter’s The Secret of Dreaming
• Mem Fox’s Koala Lou
• A number of Graeme Base books: Anamalia, The Waterhole, The Eleventh Hour,
• The Sign of the Seahorse, The Worst Band in the Universe
• Michelle Cartlidge’s Fairy Letters
• Alison Lester’s Magic Beach
• Frank Asch’s The Earth and I
  
• Mary Blackwood’s Derek the Dinosaur
• Christopher Wormell’s An Alphabet of Animals
• Judy Zavos’ Murgatroyd’s Garden
• Babette Cole’s The Trouble With series
• Dyan Sheldon and Gary Blythe’s The Whale’s Song
• Pamela Allen’s Mr McGee series

Such beautiful and interesting books that enriched mine and my child’s lives!