March is National Reading Awareness Month

March is National Reading Awareness Month, and even though the month is rushing toward an end, we still want to talk about the importance of reading.

Studies suggest that more than half of the children in this country—13 million children—will not regularly hear a bedtime story.

Reading out loud every day is the single most important thing a parent can do to prepare a child to learn. Research shows that, by age 3,  gaps in brain development appear between children whose parents read to them and those whose parents do not. Only 48 percent of young children in America are read to each day.

ReadAloud.org wants to promote a simple, powerful message:

If you have toddlers consider the following books: 

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
• The Napping House
• The Happy Egg
• Fast Food
• Yummy Yucky
• Where’s My Teddy?
• Freight Train
• Sheep in a Jeep
• Baby Happy Baby Sad
• Green Eggs and Ham

If you have preschoolers consider reading the following:

• Where the Wild Things Are
• The Snowy Day
• Harold and the Purple Crayon
• Jamboree
• Cars and Trucks and Things That Go
• The Neighborhood Mother Goose
• Charlie and Lola’s Opposites
• Smash Crash
• The Incredible Book Eating Boy
• Happy Birthday, Moon

If you have elementary aged children consider reading the following:

• The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
• Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
• The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
• Love You Forever by Robert N. Munsch
• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
• The Mitten by Jan Brett
• Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
• Oh, The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss
• Strega Nona by Tomie De Paola
• The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
• The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka
• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by John Archambault
• The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne
• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff

Books for Children Ages 9-12 –

• Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
• Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
• Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
• The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
• Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
• Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
• The BFG by Roald Dahl
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• James and the Giant Peach: A Children’s Story by Roald Dahl
• Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
• Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
• Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O’Brien
• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
• Matilda by Roald Dahl
• Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume
• Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary
• The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Books for Young Adults –

• Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
• The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
• Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls
• The Cay by Theodore Taylor
• The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare

At Columbia Orthodontics, we encourage you to read to your child at least 15 minutes every day!  If you can support their mind and we can give them a straight smile, they will be doing alright!