Marley’s book, Owl Diaries, was not an ordinary story. It was filled with captions, pictures, and a recipe.  She was excited to share the story with her grandparents. She needed support with handling some of the different layouts she encountered to help her make sense of the story (“Grammy, she’s sharing her favorite cupcake recipe.  Do I read this part?”).

Marley and Grammy were also challenged by some wording (“Eva’s Scrummy Cupcakes,” Marley began. “Whoa, what?” Grammy asked.  “Do you mean scrumptious?”  “You read it, Grammy.”  “Marley, it does say scrummy.  I wonder if Eva meant scrumptious”). Marley and Grammy worked together to make sense of that tricky word, scrummy.  Often it is the conversation with family that helps our younger readers understand.

Sometimes our young readers may bring books home to read or choose books that are different from books we read as children.  Graphic novels, comic books, and diaries are organized differently.  They appeal to children of all ages.  Often we may hear, “But, it’s a comic book.  They can’t read that!  It’s not a book.”  My question to you is, why not?  They are reading and enjoying the story. 

Reading is a life skill, one that is used every day.  As an adult reader, I don’t read the same type of things all the time.  I read cookbooks, manuals, directions, articles, ads, text messages, and menus.  As we look at our young readers, they need similar opportunities, time, and support to tackle different kinds of reading.