If you haven’t yet listened to this week’s podcast you might not know we are big BIG fans of the 39 Clues series. So we’re thrilled to be stop #4 in a 39-day countdown to the release of the newest book in the series coming out at the end of August.
We even have a giveaway to celebrate! One lucky Manic Mommies fan will win books 1, 2, 3 and 4 (#4 will be signed by author Jude Watson). To enter, please leave a comment at the end of this post and tell me how you encourage your kids to read.
This post below is exclusive to Manic Mommies and written by Jude Watson. To hear more from her, be sure to listen to this week’s podcast. You can also check out the next stop on the countdown, HighTechDad.com where he’ll be posting a video interview with book #5 author Patrick Carman.
Mary Janes and Stickball Bats
by Jude Watson
I was a tomboy growing up. Whatever the boys were doing seemed incredibly cool to me. I wanted to play baseball and draw thick black stripes under my eyes to keep out the glare. When I got whacked in the head with a stickball bat by a blow that almost crossed my eyes permanently I prided myself on the fact that I didn’t cry. The purple hues of my shiner were better than a Girl Scout badge, a testament to courage under fire.
My daughter is the same way. Funny how that happens. I never talked to her about being a tomboy, or hating those patent leather Mary Janes that swallowed socks. But my nine-year-old lives in jeans and sneakers, and when I can’t find her, she’s usually up a tree.
So when I walked into the very first meeting of 39 Clues authors and saw Gordon Korman and Peter Lerangis and heard that Rick Riordan had already signed on for the first book in the series, my inner ten year old pumped a fist in the air. I was going to mix it up with the big boys.
I got to write adventure with twists, turns, things blowing up, jokes, and snacks. And then, midway through the series, I got the extreme thrill of visiting schools and meeting our readers— kids who roared their approval and came up with stacks of books for us to sign. And there I was, the only girl with Rick, Peter, Gordon, and Pat Carman. Awesome.
Seeing those kids– that was a gift. But a more personal gift was being able to hand my book to my daughter. I got the secret thrill of watching her dive in and not come up for air, even when I announced that it was time to hit the table for taco night.
Look, being the daughter of a writer is no picnic. If she wants to crawl into my lap, there’s usually a computer on it. I’m horribly distracted. I forget, sometimes, to listen, because there’s another voice in my head, the voice of the book I’m writing. But this time, I was writing a book I knew she’d love.
For once in my life, I exhibited Smart Mom behavior. I involved her in the process from the get-go. We went together to the library to check out research materials. Together we learned about the Cairo market, the Australian outback, and what it’s like to sail around Java. We sat on the couch, surrounded by biographies of Amelia Earhart, and talked about what courage was. How it meant going forward even though you were scared. Flying solo around the world suddenly shrank down to everyday stuff—math quizzes and school presentations. A piano recital became just another adventure.
It turns out that the cool factor of the 39 Clues gives me some street cred with my own daughter. Now she knows in a concrete way that when I say “I just have to finish this chapter” that a chapter is connected to a deadline that is connected to an actual book. A book that she can’t put down.
“How’d you do that, Mommy?” she asks, closing the book. “How’d you think of all that stuff?”
And I say, “It all started with a stickball bat…”
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72 Responses to 39 Clues Book Tour and a Giveaway
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I think it is important to offer your child lots of choices to read, to suggest various genres and series to find something that resonates with your child. We have lots of books around, go to the library frequently and always look for books at used book stores or thrift shops.
My now 9-year-old discovered the Percy Jackson series a few years ago and has read everything Rick Riordan has written, repeatedly. My seven-year-old has very different tastes and sometimes struggles to find books that appeal to her. She was motivated by the summer reading programs from our local library, Borders, and our local bookstore. These programs give the child a free book after they read 10 books. My daughters liked keeping track of what they read – and the free books, of course.
I love to read!! As a child, I always had a book or two in progress… I couldn’t go for a ride in the car without a book! And, that continues today. My kids see me and my husband reading daily. I think that is important. We also make weekly trips to the public library, and they choose many different level books- above, below and at their reading levels and we read them all! We try to read at bedtime every night. Our current favorites are the Hank the Cowdog series (hilarious, for children and adults!!) and Phineas and Ferb!
Another way I encourage reading is that when my 7 year old asks a question that I may or may not know the answer to, I say, “let’s look it up”… and we look it up in books that we have or on the internet, and I let him read and explain it to me!
I would love to read these books with my kids- please enter us in the giveaway!
Thanks!
My oldest just finished the first 39 Clues book and loved it! I know he would love to own the next three!
I encourage my boys (10 and
to read by:
1. Having them see my husband and I read a lot. 2. Reading to them.
I always have a book that I am reading to help encourage my kids to read too. Find something that interests them, because it is different for each kid.
My son’s handwriting is atrocious, so in order to try and improve it, AND encourage him to read, we have him read a chapter every day & write 3 sentences about it.
We also read to both my kids almost every day, and take them to the library regularly.
Our most routine activity is reading to our daughter every night before bed. It’s probably more helpful, though, that our house has books everywhere. She even has her own stack of books next to the toilet. We go to the library at least once a week too and pick out more books.
My husband and I have always been bookworms, so she has both environment and genetics on her side too.
I have been taking my kids to a $1.00 bookstore near our home. They get pretty excited that they can even get a book for a $1.00!
I have just started my son, who starts Kindergarten in a couple of weeks, on the Magic Treehouse series. I read to him at bedtime. We just finished book 1 and I had him answer the questions to earn the stamps for his passport book. He cut out the stamps and glued them in the passport. He’s begging me to start book 2. Anything that encourages interaction with the story seems to be a hit.
We take our boys to the library every week where they can pick out any book they are interested in. Some are “just right books” and others are way beyond their current reading abilities, but they are being exposed to all sorts of new ideas.
I would love to give these to my son!
I don’t make my kids read, they choose too. They’re 6 & 8 and are ALWAYS reading. Probably because I’ve read to them everynight since they were babies and their father and I am always reading a book ourselves! <3
I had a reluctant reader. We finally figured out that he really likes history and other non-fiction. He went nuts for biographies and then it took off from there. This summer he saw previews for the Lightening Thief and wanted to watch it. I wouldn’t let him watch until he’d read the book. Once he gave it a try, he loved it.
I just listened to the podcast today and tomorrow we’re off to find Book 1 of this series! It sounds perfect for us. Thanks so much for all the great ideas!
I got very excited when I heard the interview, but haven’t made it to the library yet to check out the series. Due to the young age of my girls I haven’t been exposed to a lot of the current popular series, and we are only just now starting to get into some of them. I’m sad that this series is ending just as I’m about to discover it, but I’m looking forward to enjoying it. We encourage our girls to read (or enjoy being read to in the case of the 3 year old) by having our house full of books, weekly trips to the library, frequent trips to the bookstore, and by pretty much being willing to drop what we’re doing to read to someone or listen to someone read to us. So far it has worked, my girls love books, and I hope they keep it up.
I really enjoyed this interview!
We read to our 3 year old every night (sometimes his brother, who’s 3 months old joins us too!) and have started having him make his own books – we do the writing and he does the pictures. It’s so fun to see his imagination come to life on the pages!
I read and make sure my son sees me reading. I make going to the library and bookstore a special event and make sure he knows how important books are to me. Plus I read to him.
My daughter is a natural reader. She read at a very early age. Now when it is quit time at our house, she choose toread everyday, We read to ALOT before she started reading herself.
My son will he is a completely different story, He wont sit long enough to read anything.
Even though my kids are getting older and my oldest can read anything he wants by himself, we still read to all three every night at bedtime. It’s a wonderful time to snuggle up together!
My kids and I are very excited about the 39 clues series!
During the summer I encourage my kids to find one book per week. I know one doesn’t sound like much, but we really dive in together, singling out the one book for that week by talking about the characters, their personality and maybe the places they took us too. The kids like to draw or paint their favorite scenes from the book they are reading. It really brings characters and the entire storyline to life! And although it all sounds like fun, it is, but no, it doesn’t all happen by itself. I do much reminding(aka nagging).
I started early… Bedtime stories are a must and now at 2 she’ll take books to bed with her and read them in the morning when she wakes up (a blessing on weekends). I also try to be very patient and not to cringe when she wants me to read the same story a third time in a row.
My kiddos are still little, so it’s mainly us reading to them, but whenever I catch my daughter “reading” (looking through picture books), I always try to engage with her and have her tell me what’s going on. I want books to be fun. She loves adventures so I always ask what adventure is going on.
My kids are very different when it comes to reading. The 8 year old basically taught himself to read and just needs a bit of a push to pick up something new. The 5 year old loves to “read” book herself, but she seems to have a hard time when it really comes to learning letters, sounds and sight words. So we just keep reading aloud, a lot, and hope that they both pick up the love of reading.
From the time my kids were little babies, we’ve read to them. We’ve taken them to the library weekly and encouraged them to take out as many books as they’d like on whatever topics they’d like. We also own probably 1000 children’s books. There are some that we just have to own. My 4th child prefered books over toys. By kindergarten, he was reading at a 2nd or 3rd…sometimes a 4th grade level(depending on if he’d show his teacher what he could really do). One other thing we like to do every month or so is take the kids to the bookstore and let them choose any book they want. They love this activity.
Simply said, by example. I love to read. Also, I take my children to the library to check out books and for story time.
We also go the the nearby bookstore. They sell used books and it is important to encourage kids, especially during this trying time, to buy used and conserve.
Let me just say that my five kids are often begging to use my Kindle, iPhone, or iTouch (both with Kindle apps) because we are all major bookworms. I have three simple tips to cultivate the love of reading:
1. Read to your tiny baby. I piled board books by a futon and we’d lie down and read. They are never too small to enjoy pictures and Mom’s voice! I loved that I could take a break from chores too.
2. Read yourself. My kids see me reading and want to know what’s going on in my book. I often whet their appetite with a juicy nugget of text.
3. Don’t skip the bedtime story. We have a typical busy life running our own businesses and a heavy extra-curricular load, but we almost always make time to wind down with a book. Even my tweens love a chapter or two each night.
Having said all that, my 11 year-old has already read nearly all the required classics for high school twice over and my 10 year-old has read nine of the 39 Clues. She would be seriously beside her self to get an autographed copy so I am crossing my fingers as I press the “next page” button on my Kindle:)
I loved to read as a child and now that my kids are getting older I want to introduce them to many of the books I enjoyed as a child. We read every night, I have easy books they can practice their reading and books above their level that I read with them. I hope to make them readers like me.
My daughter, ironically, just used a bookstore gift card to purchase the first book in this series. As a voracious reader, she has whipped her way through Harry Potter, polished off the Magic Tree House series a few years ago, and is eager to get her hands on new books all the time. For both her and her brother, we have always been reluctant to ever say no to books. Whatever it takes to get them excited about reading!
my toddler loves to read, so i let him pick out 3 books each night to read. i also encourage learning by being an Example. i read all the time (in between stirring the diner, yelling Don’t do that!, and playing with my son). modeling the good behavior always helps!
Lexi’s not reading yet-she’ll start kindergarten this fall-but I still read to her, and I could use some new stories, as I am tired of reading the same ones to her over & over again. After listening to the podcast, this sounds like a fun series to read & act out.
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We read every night before bed and have books everywhere for easy access!
My husband and I always have a book or magazine going (or several at once !). My son has a structured time for his own reading every day (even during the summer), and we read aloud to him as well. We also listen to a lot of audio books on our car travels, even just around town. I try to expose him to everything – magazines for kids, nonfiction about things he is interested in, even word search puzzles to boost his confidence and abiities…
Our house is full of books in every room, I started collecting kids books long before we had any kids. Since they were tiny we have read to them, I remember the day when our oldest, when he was about 13 months old, started bringing me books to read to him, one after another. He taught himself to read, we homeschool, at 6, with hardly any help from us. He is constantly reading now. I love to read too, so I’m always reading books and magazines.
My son is learning how to read and my daughter loves to read out loud. If everyone reads for their ten minutes then they are able to stay up and listen to the chapter book for ten minutes before bed. That extends bedtime by 30 minutes but having great readers is more important.
I love reading! And I love that my kids see my enthusiasm for books, because they are now becoming just as enthusiastic. In our home, we encourage reading by visiting our local library frequently, reading to the kids, keeping a FULL shelf of books in the living room for easy access, and promoting “quiet time” at the end of the day, where we all sit to enjoy our own books.
I love to read to my girls and cannot wait to share my love of reading with them! Would love to have these for them!
The library is our best tool. Getting to pick out new books keeps my kids reading.
I have always keep a bookcase full of books so there is always something to read. We also go to the library a couple time a month. I’m and avid reader which I think helps too because they see me reading too.
This sounds like the perfect follow up to the Magic Treehouse Series — can’t wait to try them out as we are outgrowing and finishing with Jack & Annie.
I love to read and so I always knew I wanted it to be a big part of our routine. I would have been crushed if my little girl didn’t like reading as much as I did. I remember when she was a toddler, she would sit on my lap and go to her bookshelf and get book after book until we’d read 30 books at a time. She started reading before 4 and now can’t plow through them fast enough.
We keep books everywhere!! We visit the library regularly and keep a separate basket for those in the family room. The family room also has a basket of books that she can easily read independently. In her room is a bookshelf of picture books that she’ll read independently. Her old nursery now guest room has her baby board books and some of the chapter books and classics we’ve read together. And, on her nightstand are the book(s) we are reading together before bed. Not to mention, I’ve downloaded a few classics and simple chapter books for the iPad/iPhone for travel/downtime.
The only other motto I have is that I never say no to a book. She is not one to ask for toys or want to buy stuff in stores very often but when she wants a book — I’ll never say no. A trip to the bookstore usually yields at least one for each of us to take home (which is why I prefer the library!)
We are a reading family! We visit the library often and enjoy just browsing the shelves and finding new things to read. There is nothing better than a good book! They even love to receive books as gifts. : )
I haven’t actually had to do much cause my daughter loves to read. However, when she started outgrowing naps at four and a half, we told her she could read quietly instead of sleeping. Then my husband found a promo from the Angels baseball team – every hour of reading lets her color in a ball on a form and when she gets enough she can send it in and get two free tickets to an Angels game.
I think the best thing we did to encourage our daughter to read was by accident: we treated reading as a treat that could be taken away. If she didn’t get ready for bed on time, she would lose one of her three bedtime stories (or sometimes 2 or all 3). It sounds odd to have taking reading time away as a way to encourage reading, but it got my girl to think about reading as a special privilege, kind of like dessert (rather than the vitamins I make her take). Another thing along that line has been saying something like, “Let’s do something fun–how ’bout if we go to the library?” In other words, treating reading like something fun rather than work.
We always have books around…both my husband and I love to read and now so does my daughter. We read stories every night (no matter how manic and tired I might be), she has many books in her own “library” to choose from, and my husband and I will read our own books in front of her (so she sees us read). All moms know to investigate when the kids get quiet… I love it when I walk in her room and she is on her bed “reading” a book to herself or to her baby dolls.
It is a struggle to get my boys interested in books. The 39 clues books are some that we read together. My ten year old loves trying to solve the hidden clues.
I am really lucky to have a daughter who loves to read (as a matter of fact we regularly need to check up on her as she “sneaks” books in bed). I am a big reader and she has always seen me reading. Also, she gets a variety of options – magazines, books, books on tape.
My 8 year old daughter does not need encouragement, she was interested in books since before she could sit up, I actually take away reading time as punishment, if you can believe it
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With my 2 year old son was not that interested until we figured out, he likes songs in the books. I even made up a few songs, just to get him interested. Also we had wonderful daycare that encouraged books in any way possible.
I encourage my kids to read by example (I read a lot). I limit Tv and computer time and sometimes ask they they read for 20 minutes before doing something electronic.
I love to read and my kids see me reading often. Either they naturally like to read or seeing me read rubs off on them. We have lots of books and I love buying new ones for them to read. My daughter has started the 39 Clues books and has enjoyed what she has read so far.
When my oldest asks to watch tv in the morning, I ask him to read instead. He likes short books and loves to read Lego magazines – yes that is reading too!=) I read Stuart White books and they love it. He turns around and reads to his 4yo brother too. We have a library room in our house (a converted dining room). My 4yo is trying to learn to read as well. I was an avid reader as a child. Sometimes the only reading I get in is with them!
I have always been an avid reader and passed my love of reading to my children and encourage it by enrolling them in the summer reading program and by encouraging them to read books that have been turned into movies
tbarrettno1 at gmail dot com
My daughter is just under three so she isn’t reading yet – but she absolutely loves to be read to. I was listening this week’s podcast and getting very excited for when she is at a reading age – I was a HUGE reader as a child and hope to share that with my kids.
My son just finished kindergarten and is well on his way to being a reader, whether he likes it or not. On the days that he doesn’t want to read a “new” book, I let him go back and pick a book that he has already mastered…at least he’s reading and we don’t have to battle it out.
Books are always in view in our home. My daughter is 7-1/2 and is starting to read simple chapter books. She has made bookmarks to use in her book, so she likes being able to use it. We go to the library frequently and find books on topics that she is interested in. That seems to change on a weekly basis! Just giving positive feedback and encouragement really inspires my daughter to read!