{"id":6795,"date":"2019-10-15T22:39:11","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T02:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=6795"},"modified":"2019-10-15T23:24:58","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T03:24:58","slug":"guest-post-by-alane-adams-the-gift-of-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/guest-post-by-alane-adams-the-gift-of-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post by Alane Adams: The Gift of Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\u00a0Alane Adams is a literacy advocate and author who founded the Rise Up Foundation, which supports literacy projects, particularly for children K-8 in\u00a0 in underserved communities in high-poverty areas. She has written several books, including the middle grade fantasy series\u00a0The Witches of Orkney.\u00a0<\/em>The second book in the series,\u00a0The Rubicus Prophecy,\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>will be released today. Alane has written a guest post on the power of libraries and reading– something we’re always ready to share with you here at Monster Librarian!<\/p>\n

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The love of reading is one of the most essential gifts we can give our children. Children who grow up reading lots of books develop three important life skills\u2014big imaginations, problem solving, and empathy. Big imaginations are important in order to develop new ideas. Books take us places we have never been and introduce us to new ideas that allow our brains to experience them as if we were there. Having a big imagination leads to better problem solving skills. Most books follow a simple pattern\u2014a character has a problem that needs solving. Voldemort wants Harry dead. Big problem for Harry! Books allow us to follow along with these characters as they struggle, fail, struggle some more, and eventually solve their problem. By inherently modelling these skills, children develop their own problem solving skills coupled with powerful imaginations allowing them to see new paths that have never been forged.<\/p>\n

But perhaps the most important aspect that reading teaches is the ability to have empathy. In our everyday life, we cannot read minds\u2014but when we read a book we step inside the mind of the POV character and we know exactly what they\u2019re thinking\u2014if they\u2019re hot, cold, lying, angry, sad. We know everything about them, which allows a very intimate connection we can\u2019t get watching the same story play out on the screen. We can\u00a0see<\/em>\u00a0Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, but we don\u2019t\u00a0know<\/em>\u00a0what she\u2019s actually thinking: we can only read her facial expressions, see her actions, and hear her dialogue. But how will we know if she\u2019s lying? How do we know if she\u2019s smiling that she\u2019s not really sad? That\u2019s the power of books\u2014they allow us inside the character\u2019s minds, allowing us to see not just the outside, but the inside as well, so we know exactly what it feels like to be a boy with magic, a girl facing certain death, or even a pig who only wants a friend.<\/p>\n

Libraries play an important part in developing a love of reading as they are oftentimes the only place a child can get access to unlimited books. There are very few places in this world where access to resources is free and unlimited. Getting into the habit of visiting the library regularly with your child will teach them how to respect books by keeping them in good condition, allow them free choice in selecting books they want to read, and hopefully, encourage them to develop good reading habits, because they are being shown\u2014this is important.<\/p>\n

About Alane Adams<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alane Adams is an award-winning transmedia author, former professor, and literacy advocate. She is the author of the\u00a0Legends of Orkney<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Witches of Orkney\u00a0<\/em>fantasy mythology series for tweens including the newly released\u00a0The Rubicus Prophecy<\/a><\/em>, as well as\u00a0The Coal Thief, The Egg Thief, The Santa Thief,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0The Circus Thief\u00a0<\/em>picture books for early-grade readers. Her new middle grade series\u00a0Legends of Olympus<\/em>\u00a0will launch in April 2020 with\u00a0The Eye of Zeus<\/a><\/em>. She is also the founder of\u00a0Rise Up Foundation<\/a>. She lives in Southern California. For more information, visit\u00a0https:\/\/alaneadams.com<\/a><\/u>\u00a0or follow Alane on\u00a0Facebook,\u00a0Twitter\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram: @AlaneAdamsBooks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Alane Adams is a literacy advocate and author who founded the Rise Up Foundation, which supports literacy projects, particularly for children K-8 in\u00a0 in underserved communities in high-poverty areas. She has written several books, including the middle grade fantasy series\u00a0The Witches of Orkney.\u00a0The second book in the series,\u00a0The Rubicus Prophecy,\u00a0\u00a0will be released today. Alane has<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4010,4013,4014,34,473,1834,6,168,195,4012,4011],"class_list":["post-6795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alane-adams","tag-book-access","tag-book-deserts","tag-childrens-books","tag-fantasy-fiction","tag-independent-reading","tag-libraries","tag-literacy","tag-reading-engagement","tag-rise-up-foundation","tag-the-rubicus-prophecy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6795"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6934,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6795\/revisions\/6934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}