BJU Press Blog

stories

Q&A: Is a dedicated reading book necessary?

by

If your family is like mine, you probably have books all over the house. Novels pile up as they get handed down from generation to generation and as children receive them as gifts. As a result, you might be wondering why you should buy your children a separate reading textbook that includes different reading selections (also called a basal reader) when you already have plenty of books around for them to read.

At BJU Press we strongly believe in the value of basal readers and publish one for nearly every grade. The rationale behind this can be summed up in three big ideas.

BasilReader_blog

1. A wide range of content exposes your child to many different genres.

We have a lot of storybooks at our house but not much nonfiction or poetry that would appeal to a younger audience. Basal readers ensure that children are being exposed to a variety of genres, including poetry, short stories, plays, letters, and more. Introducing these literary genres is important because every child has different interests. At the same time, basal readers also develop your child’s appreciation for many types of literature. It would be a shame for a child to dislike reading just because she dislikes the particular books available to her.

Keep in mind that a basal reader doesn’t replace novels entirely. By exposing your child to different genres, it provides a great opportunity to find out what he likes to read so you can buy more of those kinds of books.

2. Stories are selected to teach specific skills.

Reading in school should be fun and interesting, but that’s not the only objective. Children need to learn the foundational comprehension skills that they’ll need for the future. Stories and questions in the BJU Press basal readers are chosen intentionally because they illustrate literary concepts that are important for children to learn. Reading and Literature kits include both before and after reading questions that relate specifically to the story to ensure your child is comprehending what he’s reading, and isn’t just saying words out loud.

3. Stories are age and developmentally appropriate.

Ensuring that reading material is age and developmentally appropriate is an important part of keeping children challenged but not frustrated. There can be a lot of guesswork involved in trying to pick out stories for your child to read. You don’t want the vocabulary to be too hard, but at the same time if it’s too easy, your child won’t develop as he reads it. Basal readers include stories from a range of difficulties that are sequenced from less difficult to more difficult to ensure success for every reader.

Take a look at the reading selections included in our BJU Press Reading and Literature books.

Two Grandmothers’ Stories

by

image of a grandmother and her granddaughter planting flowers together.

My two grandmothers were both lovely, brave women with a rock-solid trust in God. And yet, they were very different from each other. I loved them equally, and I miss them both. As a writer, I can see the stamp of their influence on my work just as clearly as I see it on my life. For the unique ways they touched my childhood, I am eternally grateful.

Grandma L. was a country woman. She gave me the gift of experiences. She was the one who taught me to love flowers—their colors, their scents, and their names. Without her, perhaps I would never have known the difference between an iris and a peony, a black-eyed Susan and a bachelor’s button. She showed me where to find mushrooms sprouting up in the woods and how to climb high in the trees to pick walnuts and cherries. She took me boating at the pond, let me drive the old green pickup down the gravel road, and pushed me on the tire swing. I reveled in the stories she made up at bedtime, scary enough to send shivers down my spine. She taught me to distinguish the hoot of an owl and the song of a bullfrog. Because of her, I learned to ride a horse, pick and shell peas, shinny up the side of a silo, and thread a lure on a fishing line. I learned to love warm June evenings under a star-studded sky and Christmases in a snow-covered farmhouse filled with the aroma of fresh-cut pine. And I learned to love writing poems to the creak of her porch swing, pausing often to chew on my pencil and gaze across the road and the open field to the line of trees at the edge of the world.

Grandma B. gave me different gifts. She lived in a modest brick apartment building downtown. Every week she rode a bus to our side of the city and spent the evening with us. And every time she came, she brought me a new book. I still have a whole shelf full of those little children’s books—ragged and dog-eared now from small fingers thumbing through the pages. I still have the memory of Grandma’s voice reading those books to me. Her voice was calm and quiet, and sometimes her wonderful laughter would bubble to the surface and warm me all through. I learned to love reading. I learned to love pictures. And I learned that the combination of a compelling story and beautiful pictures could move me deeply, lodge in my very core, and become a part of who I was.

Neither of my grandmothers lived a very flashy life. Both were widowed and spent much of their later lives alone. Neither ever lived very far from the place where she was born. Neither went to college. Neither was formally a teacher, yet both taught me things I could never have learned in school. Neither had piles of wealth to pass along to her descendants. Yet each, in her own way, made me rich. Without even realizing it, they filled my writer’s toolbox with the choicest and most useful of tools. They both gave me stories—stories I am still telling. And they both gave me the great treasure of love.