Susan Thomas Springer

You may have heard this news — the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) reported we are reading less. The NEA released To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National Consequence in November 2007. The study shows a decline in how much and how well Americans read. It links a decline in reading with a decline in community involvement. The age groups reading the least are teens and young adults. The electronic age is partly to blame, with young people sitting in front of various screens.

This is too sad! So as book lovers, let’s take action. Read to the little people in your life. Visit www.starfall.com with beginning readers. Ask a young person what they are interested in and find a book on the topic. If not, write it! Suggest young people write their own life stories. Start dinner off with a poem. Read about Japan, then go out for sushi. Read the life of Kandinsky, then paint in his style. Share this blog with students and young people to encourage them to share sentences that excite them. You can bring this life-long joy to the children in your life. I’m off to read Little House to my Sweetpeas!