Book 'Em Mom! Great Tips to Keep Kids Reading This Summer — Kelly Smith It’s summertime, and one of the first things that often goes by the wayside is reading habits. Reading is Fundamental (RIF) is a family nonprofit literacy organization. Their RIF Parent Guide Brochure offers tips for parents to encourage reading. Check out their ideas, then read on for some great summer reads and an interview with award-winning children’s author Linda Ashman. Tips for inspiring a child to read: • Let your children see you reading for pleasure in your spare time. • Take your children to the library regularly. • Encourage older children to read to their younger brothers and sisters. • Set aside a regular time for reading in your family, such as the 20 minutes before lights out or just after dinner. •Read aloud to your child, especially a child who is discouraged by his or her own poor reading skills. • Set aside a special place for children to keep their own books. • Not all reading takes place between the covers of a book. Read menus, road signs, food labels, and sheet music together. Summer reading list: • Extreme Scientists: Exploring Nature's Mysteries from Perilous Places by Donna M. Jackson. Houghton Mifflin Company • Inventor McGregor by Kathleen T. Pelley and Michael Chesworth. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. • Living Color by Steve Jenkins. Winner of the 2008 Colorado Book Award for Children’s Literature. Houghton Mifflin. • Maria's Mysterious Missio by Claudia Cangilla McAdam, with photography by John Fielder. Westcliffe Publishers • What if Everybody Did That? by Ellen Javernick. Childrens Press Inc. • When I Was King by Linda Ashman. Illustrated by David McPhail. Harper Collins