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Helping your child develop his own collection of favorite books is a great way to encourage the habit of reading. While the many books your child gets to read in school or the local library are wonderful resources, nothing beats finding your kid curled up in a corner, entertaining himself with a much beloved book of his own.

Adults generally read a book once or perhaps twice if it's a really compelling book. Not so with kids; a child will read a favorite book, ten, twenty, or more times, becoming so familiar with the content that he can often quote large passages from the book. Take the Harry Potter books, for instance: kids have devoured the series, and can tell you every detail of every character and plot twist, and can tell you, with lots of energy and disapproval, how at least one of the movies departed from the original book.

Kids who read favorite books many times over are not only developing good reading habits, they are working to deepen their understanding of the content of each book. They are developing critical reading skills as they notice details and nuances in the second, third, or fourth reading that they may not have noticed in the first. And they are preparing themselves for the more demanding curriculum of upper grade levels, where a passage from a book may require more than one reading in order to properly absorb sometimes complex material.

Providing your child with a selection of fiction and nonfiction books covering his favorite subjects is perhaps the best thing you can do to keep him reading and to prepare him for future success in school and beyond.