Our children have been back in school now for a couple months, and many benefited from summer reading. For some, that was a public library program that encouraged a wide range of books. For others, parents provided a variety of reading material at home. Some children might have read books online or several travel brochures while on vacation. Sadly for many children, there were no stories, poems or wonders of nonfiction to fill their days -- but that can change.

Just because our children are now fully immersed in school and busy with other activities doesn’t mean that we need to stop nurturing the love of casual, just-for-fun and 'read-aloud' reading. Quite the opposite. Volumes of research over the years state that the read-aloud approach is the best way to:

• show that reading is important
• build speaking and writing vocabularies
• learn narrative and expository structures
• hear how words link together in meaningful syntax
• encourage proper grammar usage
• create a stronger bond between reader and child

If all that wasn’t enough, reading to a child can be a lot of fun, depending on what is being read.

So, just because an important child in your life is entrenched in school and homework, please don’t stop reading aloud. Read a chapter from a novel right after dinner. (Pick a good middle grade novel – one that everyone will enjoy.) Read directions to a game out loud. Read a comic book while waiting at the dentist’s office or for the football game to begin. Read a few poems in the morning. (There are now shelves and shelves of terrific children’s poetry available at the local libraries. Not the sing-songy verse we remember from our childhoods.) Read funny, serious, informative, entertaining, poetic and instructional – read it all.

Read with expression. Several years ago I was driving my mother and our then two-year-old son across Indiana to find a plant nursery. While I was busy with the road, my mother sat, arm around our son, reading book after book. I remember listening and smiling to myself because it was the same “read-aloud” voice that I remembered from my childhood. She didn’t rush through the stories.  No, she served up the words as if they were the most delicious dessert – each one adding meaning and entertainment for our child.

Have fun with your readings. Use different voices and sounds. I know I appreciate when the reader of a book on CD takes the time to entertain me with authentic interpretations of the characters using voice and cadence. Even if you feel rushed, don’t fly through the words. Read them as the author intended, with a natural flow that invites the child into the writing.

Select material that both YOU and the child will enjoy. Ask local librarians to help you find some humorous picture books or a poignant animal story. Discover some of the best information books -- not the dry textbook versions -- but the newer narrative nonfiction that brims with photographs and natural prose.

And, please, let the child select books from his or her interests. Once when I was in the children’s room at a public library, a mother kept returning the books to the shelves that her daughter chose, saying, “This one is too difficult. This one is too easy. I don’t think you’d like that.”  Now, we all know that a little guidance is sometimes necessary, but so is choice. When a child can self-select books, he will have a greater commitment to listening, if only for a few pages. Besides, we all need a nudge to try something new from time to time.

Don’t stop. Sometimes parents or friends stop reading aloud when the child can read independently. Heavens! I can read beautifully and do every day. But still, nothing is more relaxing than when my husband reads to me on a road trip or while we’re resting on a beach. Even our younger son as a teenager asked that I read to him. He was home ill and feeling pretty punk. When I went up to his room to check on him, he asked if I’d read some Edgar Allen Poe. I did – for more than an hour. It was relaxing for me and comforting to him.

Make time. It’s easy to push the read-aloud out of our schedules. But don’t let that happen. Start with a specific time every day when either you and a child, or you and the entire family, sit down and enjoy together. Our busyness can wait. For a few precious minutes, turn off the TV, ignore the telephone and take a journey into a book. You’ll never regret that you did!

Author's Note:  Reading Between the Lines is a new column about books, reading, children, writing and an occasional book review. It will reflect my experiences as a teacher, consultant, writer, published author and workshop facilitator. I hope these musings bring you to a closer appreciation of words and what they can do for all of us.

Lola Schaefer is the author of more than 200 books for children, as well as a national writing consultant in elementary and middle schools. You may visit www.lolaschaefer.com to learn more about her and her work.