Building Engagement · 7 min read
Building a Love for Reading in Reluctant Readers
Some children love books on contact. Others need a longer runway. If your child is in the second group, you are not doing anything wrong – and there is a lot you can do.
Start where the interest already lives
If your child loves trucks, dinosaurs, superheroes, or a specific cartoon character – there is a book for that. The content of the book matters far less than the act of choosing, holding, and returning to it. Reluctant readers are almost never reluctant about everything; they are often deeply passionate about something specific. Follow that thread into books. Once a child has had the experience of a book they genuinely wanted to pick up, the category of “reading” expands in their mind.
Make it active, not passive
Some children resist sitting still for a book but will happily follow along while they draw, build with blocks, or play with small figures. Listening while doing is a legitimate form of reading engagement. Audiobooks, books with a read-along feature, and bilingual audio tracks like the ones in Eva’s stories can all be the entry point. The voice, the rhythm, the story – these reach children who are not yet ready to sit at a page.
Let them choose, even if the choice surprises you
A child who chooses a comic book, a joke book, a sports almanac, or a graphic novel is choosing to read. Resist the urge to redirect toward something that looks more “educational.” Engagement is the education. A seven-year-old who burns through every Captain Underpants book is building stamina, humor recognition, plot comprehension, and vocabulary. Those skills transfer.
Read aloud past the age when you think you should stop
Many parents stop reading aloud when children start reading independently. This is understandable but worth reconsidering. Hearing a fluent reader model expression, pacing, and emotion – especially in a second language – is something a beginning reader cannot yet give themselves. The read-aloud relationship also matters emotionally. The child who was read to at seven still remembers it at thirty-seven.
Never use books as a punishment or a chore
Reading for twenty minutes before screen time, reading instead of play, reading as a consequence for misbehavior – all of these frame books as the opposite of joy. We want reading to live in the category of warm, unhurried, wanted things. If the only reading happening in your house is assigned reading, find one book – just one – that has nothing to do with school and everything to do with what your child finds funny, beautiful, or exciting. The Eva Gallo collection was designed with exactly this in mind: stories that feel like an invitation, not an assignment.