Let's Talk with Cheryl Hollon
National Family Reading Week!
May 11, 2023
It’s National Make-A-Book Day. Observed each year on Thursday of National Family Reading Week! This literacy initiative aims to promote the importance of reading and encourages families to read together.
The history of National Family Reading Week was first established by the National Center for Families Learning (NCFL). Founded in 1989, the nonprofit organization is based in Louisville, Kentucky. Their mission is to address literacy needs and promote intergenerational learning. The NCFL launched National Family Reading Week in November 2011. A primary aim is to promote family bonding through reading.
Since its start, National Family Reading Week has gained momentum across the United States, with libraries, schools, community organizations, and families participating in reading-related activities such as book fairs, story-time sessions, book swaps, and reading challenges. Many organizations also collaborate with authors, illustrators, and local celebrities to engage families in reading activities and promote the joy of reading together.
The initiative has also spread to other countries to make reading a regular part of their lives. It has become an annual event that brings families together, promotes literacy, and encourages the joy of reading among people of all ages.
Miranda Trent, the protagonist in my Paint & Shine series, grew up in a family that cherished books and embraced reading aloud. I still have three books from my Grandpa Hollon’s bookcase next to the farmhouse’s front door.
What are your family reading traditions? Please comment below–I’d love to see them!
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The Paint & Shine Mysteries are set in the Daniel Boone National Forest. My parents were born and raised in the area, and now they rest in peace in the JJ Adams Family Cemetery in Wolfe County, Kentucky. The characters spend considerable time preparing traditional southern meals and creating moonshine cocktails. Please consider buying locally. Independent bookstores need your help.
Don’t forget to enter our Booklover’s Bench contest. We’re collecting entries for TWO free books to one lucky winner. It runs from May 1-22. Here’s the link: https://bookloversbench.com/contests/win-two-free-books-may-2023/
Posted in Let's Talk, with Cheryl Hollon • Tags: Cheryl Hollon, Let's Talk, National Family Reading Week, Paint & Shine Mysteries | 17 Comments
Our family tradition was mother taking us to the library or buying us books and dad reading with us. I’ve carried that through with my children and now as the reading grandmother (only I buy and read the books ).
Hi Debra, I also enjoy your pictures featuring your ‘littlest reader.’ It’s so endearing.
One of my greatest joys has been imparting my love of stories to my children and grandchildren. Years ago, I even wrote a children’s chapter book featuring my two oldest grandkids as protagonists. THE MAGIC PAINTBRUSH is about two warring kingdoms, one pink and one blue, who have fought so long that no one remembers why they’re at war with each other. It takes two children from another place to bring them together and show them that no matter their differences, everyone can get along. (Maybe it should be mandatory reading for all politicians?)
I am so impressed that you created a chapter book featuring your grandkids. They must be so thrilled. My sister wrote a children’s picture book featuring small animals on the family farm for my niece.
I came from a family that read, but to put that in perspective, TV also went off the air every night! Definitely the Dark Ages.
I still remember the Test Pattern on the TV, but we all had books to read.
I’m glad to see so many reading families and the passing on of the tradition. Unfortunately in my family, only my mom and I were true readers. And as I have no kids/grandkids, best I can do for future generations is to write books and hope they get read even when I’m gone. 🙂
Hi Diane, LOL, merely writing books seems to be a grand way to honor a reading tradition! Write on!
I always loved reading books and reading to my children and grandchildren!
Hi Sarah, I’m right there with you. My deepest pleasure is when I see one of my kids or grandkids reading. Heaven!
I used to go to the library when I was growing up and continued that tradition with my kids. When they needed community volunteer hours, they worked at the library. Unfortunately, neither of them is a fiction lover today.
Hi Nancy, I think public libraries are among the most important influences on young readers. It’s a wonderful place to volunteer.
My mother always told me that she read to me as a child. Unfortunately, I’m one of those people who remembers very little about my childhood, and it always irritated my mom that I didn’t remember all those hours she’d spent with me.
Hi Terry, Oh my goodness. What a loss to your mother. However, it must have had some effect. After all, you write books now. Write on!
I can remember my mom taking me to the library and browsing the children’s section. I’d take home several books, read them in quick succession then want my mom to take me back to the library for more books. The library was quite a ways away so I had to wait to return. Besides reading to my kids, when they were little, I’d take them to the library for story time. Then as they grew older, they’d participate in the reading program at the library.
I always read to my 2 children when they were growing up, I would take them to the library every summer and I would enroll the in the reading program. Well, when our daughter had her 2 children she would also take them to the library and she also enrolled them in the Libraries reading program. My children as well as I loved going to the library and then coming home and reading their books in the evening before bedtime.
My parents signed me up for one of those BOM Clubs in the 1950s. I was allowed to read them first, but NOT allowed to make any marks in them and had to share them with my five younger siblings.. Imagine my HORROR on returning home freshman year of college to find my stepbrother had scrawled his name in them and my father just beamed at him.