Setting up your child’s library entails more than just buying books

Since a book collection starts slowly and organically, it is important to involve your child in the process of building their own

The most commonly asked question from this mother to her daughter goes like this: “What would you like me to read to you tonight? Choose three books.” My daughter Zahra, three years old at the time, would pick out three titles from the shelf which had all the bedtime books–Good Night Moon; Good Night Gorilla; Guess How Much I Love You; and many more board books. One of the strongest contenders from this shelf was Tell Me Something Happy Before I Go to Bed, a delightful story about two bunnies, Willoughby and his younger sister Willa.This book has an utterly charming bedtime routine, where Willoughby recited a list of all the things that make Willa happy so that she could think about them and fall asleep happily. She could then wake up in the morning and look forward to enjoying all her favourite activities.

At this time, I was no library educator, just a mom who loved books and to read to her child every single day. The library was a collection of books in a mirror cupboard near my daughter’s bed. There was a rudimentary system of organisation with all of Zahra’s favourite bedtime books on the bottommost shelf so that she could easily pull out the ones she wanted to read. This space was chosen as it was the deepest cupboard in the room and could comfortably accommodate all her books. There was already a rapidly growing collection, starting to take shape from the time she was born.

Building blocks

The most important tip I could possibly share about setting up your child’s library is to start with building your collection of books. There can be no library without books. When your child is younger, use all the resources you can possibly access, and go to bookstores in your hometown as well as when you travel elsewhere. Visit book exhibitions, sign up for websites offering age-appropriate book recommendations. If there is a particular book that your child has enjoyed in school, try and order it for them so that they can read it at home. I recall that when Zahra went to a playgroup, she enjoyed Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle, or maybe I did! So I promptly bought the book and read it to her at home. Reinforcement and repetition are both equally important in the earlier years of a child’s education.

This is how a collection starts, slowly and organically. Always take your child with you; this is how they learn to browse and engage with books. Make an outing out of it. It just becomes a treat and something to look forward to. Let them take a stack of books and sit in a reading corner in a store, touch the books, turn the pages and explore. You can always pick the books that you feel they should read but allow them to choose a few books on their own as well. You can go over the final selection along with them, saying, “Mommy has picked two and you pick three.” Try and empower them to feel good about themselves. If you are a bibliophile like I am, even get them to smell books! Let books feel like a whole new world that they can immerse themselves in.

Maximising space

One of the biggest arguments that can be used to build a library at home for your child is that you should surround your child with good books. No matter the space and the size of your home or your child’s room, there are always ways to accommodate books. Furniture and pieces can always be bought later. If you are planning on redecorating your child’s room, you can plan to design a library. There are several options to add wall shelves, create storage space under beds, and so on.

Understanding the value of books

If your child wishes to buy a book, this is one time that YES is always the right response! You can explain this by saying that there is a special budget for books–books give us knowledge and can be passed on and shared. In this way, you can create a sense of respect for books in your child’s mind and make them see they have a different place to occupy in the world of material objects. If it’s a very expensive book or an entire series of books, you could recommend that your child save some pocket money or try to earn some money to purchase them. This will automatically help your child see the value of not only the books, but in what it is like to try and save up for something really coveted.

Raising a reader

Reading out loud to your child is truly the cornerstone of helping them become a reader. It’s not enough to simply put the books in the library. Research has proven time and again that reading out loud to a child is one of the best ways to raise a reader, and one should continue even as your child becomes older.

One of the most important factors to consider while building a library for your child is a library membership. This can be a library in your neighbourhood, online or in a club. It’s not just about buying books but also about learning about the value of a library and trying to emulate it in your own microcosmic world. Becoming a reader does not necessarily imply that one needs to go to a bookstore every week and buy books. I think it’s very important to disassociate money from books, and only a library can really help achieve this. A library membership is invaluable as you learn to navigate the world of books and reading, and this can be the main inspiration to building your own library at home. While travelling overseas, take your child to visit iconic public libraries. These are free and open to all and have such interesting stories to tell, right from their architecture to their history to their collections.

More than just reading

We recently moved to a new home, and I went over all the books we had collected with Zahra. We had to do away with some of them as there were just too many. It was an amazing process and we discovered that she chose to hold on to so many books for various reasons–nostalgia, comfort, humour. A library also means that you have to keep sorting out books to make room for more. Books are portals to human emotions, and a library does not necessarily need to have the most intelligent or smart books but those that reflect memories and personal choices, and titles that comfort and entertain.

There are an overwhelming number of resources today for books. Social media can, in fact, be helpful to find out about children’s book publishers, authors and librarians. There is a glut of information as is everywhere. An important rule of thumb is to stay away from bestseller lists and, instead, try and glean recommendations from actual readers. I avoid bookstores that do not employ readers, as they are selling books like empty objects and have no opinions to offer.

As a library practitioner, one of the most important things that I would like to share is that while choosing books and helping your child decide what to read, keep in mind what values and beliefs you would like them to grow up with. Buy diverse books, books in different languages and bilingual books. Add books that deal with issues of social justice, race, gender and caste discrimination. Always look out for books by Indian authors so that they can grow up with a sense of context and belonging.

Rudine Sims Bishop, a professor of children’s literature, is best known for her work in promoting multicultural children’s literature. This is perhaps reflective in the title of her book, Mirrors, Windows and Sliding Doors. Books can help us get a glimpse into worlds that are different from our own and even help us to become more resilient, feel inspired and be empowered.

Also Read: 15 books to keep your summer reading going strong

Also Read: How can you sustain and strengthen a love for reading?

Also Read: 6 first-time authors who will leave you wanting seconds