From the Horn Book editor

You can't get any more knowledgeable in the field of children's literature than Roger Sutton. This is from an article about choosing books for kids in the November/ December issue of Horn Book. Here's Mr. Sutton on helping good readers become passionate about books. And a word or two about parenting while he's at it:

Parents of an early expert reader — heck, parents of any kind of a reader, from reluctant to ambitious — are confronted with two sometimes-conflicting sets of expectations: what they want for their child and what their child wants for him- or herself. I would suggest that, ultimately, satisfaction will be found for the former by assiduous attention to the latter. Just because your child can read at a fifth-grade level doesn’t mean he needs to at all times. (Think about your own reading: just because you can read Henry James doesn’t mean you must, does it?) At the same time, of course, just because your child is seven doesn’t mean she can’t take a crack — if she wants to — at Harry Potter, either. Given access to a wide variety of reading — both print and pixeled texts — and given the proper tools and encouragement to wade through it and choose, children turn themselves into the readers their parents want them to be.