Do my children need to read widely?
If my youngest were allowed, we would read only truck books all day long. I have nothing against construction and vehicle books (I have several favourites of my own), but I want my children to learn to enjoy and try books outside of not only their interests but also their lived experiences. While it’s important for our kids to read books that reflect them, part of developing a love for literature in our children and rounding out their character is also reading widely and diversely.
Books can become windows and tours into other lives, hobbies, emotions, experiences, or preferences outside of what our children are used to. While my boys love routine and repetition, I make a point of gathering books outside of what they know and love to broaden their thinking and understanding. Sometimes they lose interest, but sometimes we find a new beloved story and author.
Reading Widely Gives Us New Perspectives
There’s the running joke about classic literature that British literature says, “I will die for honour,” and French literature says, “I will die for love,” and American literature says, “I will die for freedom,” while Russian literature says, “I will die.” There’s a bit of truth to that and, because of it, we need books that fill in the weaknesses and gaps of each other. It’s why C. S. Lewis in his essay, On Reading Old Books, that for every modern book you read you should then read an old one—because each generation has its blindspots, and the books outside that generation will be able to point them out.
The same is true of people, right? Our backgrounds, upbringings, cultures, hobbies, preferences, skillsets, and knowledge all make us both unique and limited. It’s why we discuss the importance of having diversity in the workplace. We need the voices of both men and women at the table, the voices of poor and rich, the voices of a variety of cultures and races. Our uniqueness and differences work together—where one is weak, the other is strong; where one is blind, the other sees; where one is uncertain, the other has knowledge. Books can offer us this kind of wisdom as we welcome a variety of voices in our homes and on our couches for our kids. This promotes critical and nuanced thinking.
Reading widely and diversely means we collect books from different times, cultures, races, experiences, genres, topics, and perspectives to gain the wisdom that each has to offer us.
Reading Widely Gives Us Understanding and Empathy
All of us lack the ability to fully understand a set of circumstances we have never lived in. But books can be a window for us and shed light on what we may have never considered or felt before. This gives us not just greater and broader wisdom, but further nuance and empathy when dealing with others. As children’s author Kate DiCamillo said, “When we read together, we connect. Together, we see the world. Together, we see each other.”
This is a gift we can hand to our children through the way we craft their home library. As Kimberly Gillespie wrote in Wild Things and Castles in the Sky, “How can children gain exposure to and appreciation for cultures that are different than their own? How could a child in a major city get a peek into life for a child on a farm? For children with limited resources who cannot travel to other cities or states, let alone other countries, what could provide a ‘window’ into a world beyond their own? Books. Specifically, books written about people who are different than they are, written by people who represent those communities.”
Our children need to be pushed to try new things. They need to experience the stories of others to compassion in them; if your child has never experienced the difficulty of moving to a new school, they might not consider or understand what their new classmate is going through. But by reading a book about moving, your child can develop empathy for their classmate.
Let us give our children “window” books to give them glimpses and wisdom from worlds unlike their own.
