Growing a Reader from Birth: Your Child's Path from Language to Literacy

Rating:
Summary: Good, but does not live up to premise
Review: I gained some good suggestions from this book (namely the recommendation for the Jolly Phonics system) but was a bit disappointed with the lack of practical suggestions I could use with my already-quite-verbal 2 year old. Perhaps readers who work with language-challenged children would find this book more beneficial.

The author seeks to help parents model and teach language skills to their children. However, many of the recommendations seemed to almost make fun of parents who struggle with communicating with their children. I thought a more supportive tone would help achieve the author's goals, especially since (as she goes to great lengths to explain) parents do not always do a good job of listening and speaking appropriately to their children. I also found the author relied overly on anecdotal situations. Often the text referred to past anecdotes without a reminder of the context; this left me feeling lost on more than one occasion.

But as I mentioned previously, this book did steer me toward Jolly Phonics, which has provided exactly the tools I sought to help me guide my toddler into the world of phonics, reading, and writing.