One of the most treasured books I own is from my great-grandparents.  It’s a book of nursery rhymes called The Real Mother Goose with the inscription:

To Brenna Joy 1990 for christmas.
Happy reading
love you
G. G. pa & G. G. ma Abbott [sic]

My great-grandparents were from a town called Dugdale in northwestern Minnesota.  The town is no longer incorporated, but you can still find it on a Google map.  They didn’t have much in the way of an education (my grandmother doesn’t think they got past 6th or 7th grade, if that) but they always knew reading was important.  How, is still a mystery to me.  Not only did they understand the importance of reading for their children—two of whom went on to earn PhDs—but they valued it so deeply that they continued to support their great-grandchildren in developing a love for reading.

Whether you barely have a middle school education or a PhD or somewhere in between, we all know that reading is important.

Why Reading Matters So Much

Reading is one of the most powerful predictors of a child’s academic success. Research shows that access to books is the strongest predictor of reading achievement.¹  While catching up is possible, it’s unlikely for children who fall behind early.  If a student is a poor reader at the end of first grade, there is an 88% chance they will still be a poor reader by the end of fourth grade.²  Conversely, students who are average readers in first grade have an 87% likelihood of maintaining that level at the end of fourth grade.³  This is especially critical because by the end of third grade, students transition from learning to read to reading to learn.⁴  Without strong reading skills, they will struggle to grasp content in other subjects.  According to research, children who are not proficient readers by the end of third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school.⁵  And dropping out has long-term consequences, including significantly lower median income.

In short, reading isn’t just an academic skill—it’s a foundation for lifelong opportunity and success.

How Reading Builds Academic Success

Reading is the foundation to all other learning – it’s a necessary tool to become academically successful.⁶  Reading has the ability to improve spelling, writing, grammar, and vocabulary.⁷  It helps children build a base of background knowledge on a wide variety of topics.⁸  As a side note, all these benefits also apply to learning a second language!⁹

How can reading do all this?  When we talk, listen to the radio or watch TV, most of the words we hear (up to 95%) are from a group of 5,000 most commonly used words.¹⁰  But when we read, books increase the number of rare words that we encounter from 9.9 per thousand in regular conversations to 30.9 words per thousand in children’s books and 52.7 words per thousand in novels.¹¹  The more you see and hear these words in context, the more likely you are to remember the spelling and understand the meaning.¹²  Books tend to be written in a grammatically correct manner and by hearing or reading grammatically correct language, you learn to imitate that pattern.¹³  By the time students are in third grade, reading is the most important vocabulary builder they have.¹⁴  The more engaged your child is in reading, the better their reading scores are.¹⁵

Reading not only strengthens language arts skills but also supports learning across other academic subjects.  One key way it does this is by building background knowledge—the information students gain through reading that enhances their cultural literacy and helps them better understand the material they encounter in textbooks and classroom instruction.¹⁶  This broader understanding, in turn, improves their ability to grasp and engage with content in other disciplines.¹⁷

Reading Builds More Than Just Academic Skills

While academic benefits are certainly important, so is developing the character of your children.  You guessed it – books help with that too!

Spending time reading with your children develops deeper family relationships, gives you the gift of time together, and develops common interests.¹⁸  The books that you read can help open your child’s eyes to the experiences of others in different circumstances in a way simply reading facts or the news just can’t.¹⁹  A study from the University of Toronto shows that “reading fictional stories increases the reader’s empathetic response to people in their real life.”²⁰  Another study shows that by reading stories your brain develops similar network connections to actually living through the experience yourself.²¹  Those who read acquire knowledge more readily and thus gives them greater personal and professional power.²²

Final Thoughts

In the end, reading is more than a skill—it’s a doorway to opportunity, understanding, and connection.  Whether you’re reading to your child at bedtime, helping them choose a new library book, or simply modeling the joy of getting lost in a story yourself, you’re building a foundation that lasts far beyond the classroom.  Every page turned is an investment in their future.  No matter your background or how busy life gets, remember: you can’t go wrong with reading.

Happy reading!!

Works Cited

6, 22: Brozo, William G. To Be a Boy, to Be a Reader: Engaging Teen and Preteen Boys in Active Literacy. International Reading Association, 2010.

4, 5: Hernandez, D. J. (2012). Double jeopardy – How third grade reading skills and poverty influence high school graduation. The Annie E. Casey Foundation. https://assets.aecf.org/m/resourcedoc/AECF-DoubleJeopardy-2012-Full.pdf

2, 3: Juel, C. (1988). Learning to read and write: A longitudinal study of 54 children from first through fourth grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(4), 437–447. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.80.4.437

4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 17:  Krashen, Stephen D. The Power of Reading: Insights from the Research. Libraries Unlimited ; Heinemann, 2004.

18, 19, 20, 21: Mackenzie, Sarah. The Read-Aloud Family: Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections with Your Kids. Zondervan, 2018.

1: McQuillan, J. (1998). The literacy crisis: False claims, real solutions. Heinemann.

7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16:  Trelease, Jim. The Read-Aloud Handbook: Includes a Giant Treasury of Great Read-Aloud Books. Penguin Books, 2013.