Your kids can get a free book at Barnes & Noble this summer when they read 8 books and track them on the “Passport to Summer Reading” at Barnes & Noble. A parent or guardian will need to sign the Passport when it is complete. Passports can be turned in anytime between May 25 and September 7 and exchanged for a free book from a list of paperback titles. The list is actually pretty good and is broken down by grade level.

The program is being presented in conjunction with “The 39 Clues.” Click here to visit the Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program website for more details.

Borders has announced their summer reading program, Double-Dog Dare. Jeff Kinney, author of the hugely popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, helped announce the program.

The reading program is open to kids under the age of 12. They must read 10 books (completely of their choice) and then list them on the form available on the Borders website. Once they read the books and complete the form, they can exchange it for a free book. (Last year it was for a coupon for 50% off any book). Free book titles include the following but may change:

Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary ISBN 0380709597
Miss Daisy is Crazy! by Dan Gutman ISBN 0060507004
Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown ISBN 0060097914
Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary ISBN 0380709589
The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan ISBN 0142417440
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen ISBN 0440419395
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth
George Speare ISBN 0440495962
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes ISBN 0440442508
The River by Gary Paulsen ISBN 0440407532
Kristy’s Great Idea by Ann
M. Martin ISBN 0545174759

The form must be completed, signed by a parent, and returned to a Borders or Waldenbooks location by 8/26/2010. There is no purchase necessary to take advantage of the program. I love when companies do summer reading programs because it gives the kids a goal throughout the summer. The rule for my kids is that they cannot duplicate books for different programs. If they want to earn multiple prizes, they have to read that many more books. So far it hasn’t been a problem because they love to read! How about your kids? Do you participate in summer reading programs? What has your experience been?

Click here to visit the Borders website for more information about their Summer Reading Program.

Looking for a tip to help your family stay connected in this fast-paced world?  Start a parent-child book club to simply and economically make connections with your children through a community of books.  Busy moms will appreciate how this activity will easily blend into their already full lives.

To get started, find a few like-minded friends and their children who are interested in joining you on this adventure.  Agree on the goals and ground rules for your family book club.  Choose a first book that will be challenging and engaging to read.  The host adult for each meeting can draft open-ended discussion questions that will ideally stimulate a rewarding and meaningful book discussion.  You can share your values and thoughts about situations that arise in the books, and your children can share their feelings and ideas through discussing situations that the book’s characters faced.  Also, the host can create enrichment activities such as book-inspired art or science projects, snacks, field trips, movement or sports activities, and games or puzzles.  These types of experiences truly enhance the book discussion and provide a hands-on experience that everyone will remember.  Enjoy reading the books that your group has selected, and bonding with your family through discussions and related activities.  It works for me!

Melissa Stoller

Co-author, The Parent-Child Book Club: Connecting With Your Kids Through Reading (Melissa Stoller & Marcy Winkler, HorizonLine Publishing, 2009, www.parentchildbookclub.com).  This is a comprehensive resource book with step-by-step instructions for organizing and conducting your family book club.  The 20 Book Club Model Guides provide everything families need to get started!

With four kids I do a lot of reading.  I’ve taught each one of them to read with phonics my way.  However, as they outgrew the phonics program we started to read together each night.  I realized that reading together can do more than just benefit your kids – it benefits me as a parent.

READING TO TEACH

When my kids were toddlers until second grade I would read a book with them each night.  I did it to teach them to read.  It was the icing on the cake of our lessons.  I realized that my younger children learned to read and memorize words even earlier than my older children.  It was an enlightening benefit to reading with them so early.  Also, they used that for their cuddle time with mommy or daddy.  Both my husband and I would take turns reading to them.  Before we knew it, they wanted to read to us.

READING FOR BONDING

Even though reading offered a learning opportunity, it also offered a time to bond with our kids.  During the reading of stories we would ask questions.  Then as the kids got older (I have a 6, 9, 13, and 15yr old) we would act out stories that we repeated.  The kids loved, loved, loved this.  Even the older kids would play with us, just to get a kick out of scaring the little ones.  It was a way to move our reading to a family bonding experience that pulled the older kids into playing with our younger ones.  Not to mention it is just darn fun.

READING FOR EVOLVING

As an avid reader all of my life, my husband and kids encouraged me to write stories for them.  It was an inspiration for writing my books Explorer X-Alpha and The Pack.  My kids became my beta readers and active in story development.  Our reading together turned into us writing together.   All of my kids come up with story ideas, and my older two have even started writing.  My oldest son has entered a contest or two, and my oldest daughter beta reads for other authors also.  My youngest two kids, love to give me story ideas and even came up with the idea for the world I built for THE PACK and BANDITS by throwing suggestions at me.

THE OVERALL BENEFITS

Reading with your kids has given me so many gifts.  It’s been a teaching tool, a bonding tool, a safe platform for conversation, and the beginning of my career as a writer.   Try it for at least a year and you will be surprised how much reading just ten minutes a day can benefit you and your family.

By LM Preston, author of Explorer X-Alpha and THE PACK, http://lmpreston.blogspot.com/

One of the hottest book series for pre-teens and teens this year is Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Not only is the book series on fire, but a Percy Jackson and the Olympians movie is set to be released soon. The series is a mixture of fantasy and adventure, based on Greek Mythology. Some of my adult friends are reading the series and loving it as well. If you haven’t added it to your family book list yet, you should definitely check it out.

If you already have Percy Jackson and the Olympian fans in your house, you might want to consider these Percy shirts now available at Hot Topic:

Percy Jackson And The Olympians The Lightning Thief Poster T-Shirt

Percy Jackson And The Olympians The Lightning Thief Hero T-Shirt

Click here to find more Percy Jackson and the Olympians merchandise.

Looking for a way to motivate your kids to read this summer or reward them for a job well done? Borders has started up its Summer Reading Program again this summer.

You simply need to visit the Summer Reading Program page on the Borders website and print out the worksheet (one for each kid). Once they read 10 books, they take the completed worksheet to any Borders or Waldenbooks store by August 26 to get a free book.

The program is only for kids under the age of 12. We won’t be doing it this summer because my daughter is reading the last of the Harry Potter books and will be lucky to get through 2 or 3 of them this summer. But I can’t complain about that.