Reading and writing are two core skills which help build a strong foundation for a child’s education and also helps in strengthening the oral communication skills. Children can learn a lot of basic skills in an early age. Some children start to read from age 6 onwards and some still struggle to read and write even when they are in the 8th grade.

Reading to young children improves their cognitive skills and helps along the process of cognitive development. By introducing reading into your young child’s life, and the conversations that it might prompt, not only helps them to make sense of their own lives at a young age but also improves their writing skills. It ignites creativity, sparks curiosity, and stimulates the imagination in young children. This often leads to role-play as children grow which further helps them to develop other skills such as empathy, problem-solving, and morality.

The age factor plays an important role here. As the age increases a child must be able to read above a certain level. This level is also known as age-appropriate reading. The most common question which parents have is: When is the right time to start reading? However, we must understand that not all cases are similar and there is no general solution that will apply to everybody. Children need to be fast learners in today’s day and age so that they don’t fall behind in their class. Learning to read can be a challenge for as many as 40 percent of kids. A study showed that young children whose parents read them five books a day when they entered kindergarten, they had heard about 1.4 million more words than kids who were never read to. Kids who hear more vocabulary words are more familiar with those words in print when they enter school. Hence, they are likely to pick up reading skills more quickly and easily.

Some books for children up to Age 5 years

• Lost & Found by Oliver Jeffers
• The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr
• Where’s Spot? by Eric Hill
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
• I Will Not Ever Never Eat A Tomato by Lauren Child
• Room on The Broom by Julia Donaldson
• The Cat in The Hat by Dr Seuss
• I Want My Potty by Tony Ross
• Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andrea & Guy Parker Rees
• Elmer- David Mckee
• My Mother’s Saree by Sandhya Rao
• Catch That Crocodile by Anushka Ravishankar
• Pink & Blue by Ritu Vaishnav

Whether we are looking for book suggestions for our independent reader, or a title to read aloud to our class or to children at home, we are sure to find a chapter book that we all will love. Children generally move towards reading chapter books somewhere between the ages of seven to ten years. However, there is no hard and fast rule to this.

Some books for children in the Age group 6-12 years

• The Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osborne
• The Princess in Black Series by Shannon Hale 
• Heidi Hecklebeck by Wanda Coven
• The Adventures of The Wishing Chair by Enid Blyton
• Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
• The Magic Faraway Tree Series by Enid Blyton
• The Famous Five Series by Enid Blyton
• The Secret Seven Series by Enid Blyton
• The Dragon Master Series by Tracy West
• The Harry potter Series- J. K. Rowling
• Geronimo Stilton Series by Elisabetta Dami
• Grandma’s Bag of Stories by Sudha Murty
• Malgudi Days by R.K. Narayan
• Getting Granny’s Glasses by Ruskin Bond

Teens who read widely are better able to handle complex concepts, score better on standardized tests, and are often more accepting of those who are different from themselves. For a lot of teenagers who hate reading, finding the right subject matter may prove the difference between grumbling over finishing their required reading list and devouring a new novel without coaxing.

Some books for children in their teens

• The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
• The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas
• Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer
• To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Lord of The Flies by William Golding
• Lord of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey
• The Things we Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer
• The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
• A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
• The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
• Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
• The Inscrutable Americans by Anurag Mathur
• One Indian Girl by Chetan Bhagat

Hence, it is important to start at a young age and teach your child the value of reading so that they will grow to practice it often and value their ability to do so.