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Contact
Teresa Saari
Email: teresasaari@aol.com
Tel: 780-892-2625


10 Tips to Get Your Son Reading His Christmas Books
...and put down the Game Boy

Edmonton, AB -- According to Canadian testing on literacy (SAIP), between 1994 and 2002, girls have maintained a significant advantage over boys in reading and writing. Biologically, boys are slower to develop than girls and often struggle with reading and writing skills early on. According to www.guysread.com:

- The action-oriented, competitive learning style of many boys works against them learning to read and write
- Many books boys are asked to read don’t appeal to them. They aren’t motivated to want to read.
- As a society, we teach boys to suppress feelings. Boys aren’t practiced and often don’t feel comfortable exploring the emotions and feelings found in fiction.
- Boys don’t have enough positive male role models for literacy.

How then, to get our boys reading and improving their literacy? Canadian author Teresa Saari offers these 10 tips:

1. Use adventure books and fantasy books with visual appeal

2. Get dad to go to the library with his son

3. Read aloud with expressions and humor

4. Read at a moderate pace, not too fast. Listening is a challenge for many children, take time to enjoy any illustrations

5. Dads, get your son to write a weekly book report with an attractive reward such as pizza

6. Start small using comics, magazines and newspapers

7. Encourage your school to start a Book club for boys with a cool name

8. Feel free to stop and discuss the book if you and your listener want to

9. Keep in mind that children can look restless and still be listening. Some children need to be moving around or fidgeting with something. Let them squirm or even draw pictures as they listen.

10. If your child is not enjoying a book, you are not obliged to finish it. This is most likely to come up with chapter books. You don't want to abandon a book quickly, but if a book has not sparked interest after several sessions, try another one.

Getting the boys to interact on the stories is a crucial step. "Try asking a science-oriented question about the story" Saari suggests. "Ask him what he would do in the same situation."

Saari has just completed her second book, "Dager of the Tasman Empire". Dager is the story of a little boy who at the age of three, was stolen from his family and sold to a wicked hag. By the age of five, he begins to wonder if his recurring dreams of magical far away lands full of happiness, love and family are only dreams, or actual memories. Will Dager ever find out the truth? Saari is also the author of "Imogene of The Pacific Kingdom".

Autographed copies of her books are available at www.teresasaari.com. The books are also available at bookstores across Canada.

About Teresa Saari: As a child, author Teresa Saari spent days on end reading fantasy and fairy tale stories. The Saari family lives near Edmonton, in Alberta, Canada. Teresa devotes a lot of her time promoting the novel in bookstores, libraries and schools. She has been featured on CTV and radio across Canada.



Contact:
Teresa Saari
Email: teresasaari@aol.com
Tel: 780-892-2625

OR

Susan Valeri
The Powerful Publicity Group
Email: susan@powerfulpublicity.com
Tel: 905-335-4081