Katie Titterton: The gift of reading

Editor’s note: This commentary is by Katie Titterton, who is the communications director for the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF). She lives in Richmond.

My family and several great teachers taught me to love reading. At an early age, I learned books were passages to worlds known and unknown. Reading helped me in school, sure, but I’ve also enjoyed a boundless informal education: if I’m interested in something, I read about it. This education, the one with no degrees, is just as valuable.

Reading is a gift we can share at home and with our communities. This is going to be a difficult winter for many of our friends and neighbors. We’re seeing deep cuts to food assistance programs and pensions, uncertain health care costs and high gas and fuel prices. Many Vermonters have to choose between food and fuel. Books are a luxury.

But reading is a golden ticket. According to a study released this year by the Institute of Education at the University of London, reading for pleasure significantly affects cognitive development. The study found that children’s reading habits are a more powerful success indicator than their parents’ level of education.

Again: A love of reading is more important to a child’s success than whether his or her parents went to college.

Kids need access to material that interests them at home, in libraries and at school. Much of our state is rural, and in many towns, resources are scarce. Many Vermont children grow up in homes with no books at all. When essentials are cut, we need to make sure kids can still find books that stoke their imaginations.

In the long term, it’s an investment in our society. Children who enjoy reading seek out books and magazines that interest them, and as they absorb the material, they develop a wealth of intellectual and social skills: vocabulary, attention span, problem solving, critical thinking, citizenship and empathy.

Inspiring kids to love reading is the mission of the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF), the Waterbury Center-based nonprofit I work for. And more than anyone else, kids are inspired by the adults who care about them. So as individuals and members of a community, what can we do?

In our own families, we can share the pleasures of reading for cheap or free.

• If you’re running errands with a child, make your last stop the library. On the drive home, talk about the book she checked out, or if you have time to make it really special, go out for hot chocolate and talk about why she’s excited to read it.

• Or, check out an anthology or book of short stories on a theme — holidays or other — and make your gift the ritual of snuggling together on winter evenings and reading a different story or chapter each night.

•  If there’s a child you visit regularly, keep in your bag a favorite chapter book from your childhood. Your gift is some one-on-one time during each visit to read the next chapter together.

•  If you’re shopping for gifts, consider books. If there are several kids on your list, enlist one of them to accompany you to a bookstore and help select titles for the rest — then let him pick out one for himself.

And if you’re in a position to give to your community, there’s a lot you can do to help.

•  Several local bookstores have holiday book drives that benefit children in need — and many discount books purchased for this purpose.

•  Ask your town or elementary school librarian for a list of children’s books or a magazine subscription they’d love to have, and purchase one or two for their stacks.

•  If there’s nothing you particularly want or need, ask loved ones to donate a children’s book in your name.

If you help a child learn to love reading, you’ve given a profound gift. You’ve kindled imagination, the joy of discovery, the awareness that there is always more to learn and the tools to identify and pursue dreams.

For every child, there’s a book that will change his or her life. Let’s make sure Vermont kids have access to those books.