About My Birthday Books

Once upon a time . . .

. . . our family imagined that all children could have their own special books, and these books were special because they were given as a gift on their birthday, and by making the books such a special gift, it would help these children develop a lifelong love of reading. We have three children of our own. Our oldest child (who is now an adult) did not have many books available to him as a youngster. I (his mother) never made trips to the library with him and only read to him if he brought a book to me and asked me to read it to him. This is very tough for me to admit, because I should have known better. Our oldest does not find reading enjoyable, his schools days were a struggle and anything that requires a lot of focus and attention is a daunting task. I do not believe that if only I had read to him more he’d be a Harvard Grad by now, but I do believe that he would have struggled much, much less. I was able to figure this out before our younger children arrived, but not soon enough to help my oldest. Our younger two, had plenty of age-appropriate literature and someone to sit and read with them before they were even born. Coincidence or not — our younger children are thriving in school, make reading a part of their daily routine and get excited to visit the library (still, even our middle school aged son). This is how and why we came up with the idea for My Birthday Books. We want to bring attention to the many benefits of daily reading with children and make sure that children have books that they will enjoy.