Avid readers rarely come out of the womb clutching A Tale of Two
Cities. Nope, more often than not, they come from homes where
their parents “did very specific things to nurture a love of
reading in their children.” This is what reading specialist Mary
Leonhardt argues in her book, 99 Ways to Get Kids to Love
Reading. We think Leonhard’s reading strategies are worth
talking about. It’s a dramatic example, but it does seem rather
unlikely that someone like Mozart would have realized his
potential had circumstances been different. Sure, he had a
natural, perhaps even genetic, predisposition towards music, but
it didn’t hurt that he was privileged enough to have a keyboard
in the house; it didn’t hurt that his father was an experienced
teacher and semi-accomplished composer either. The point we’re
getting at is that readers, like musicians, are made—they’re not
born. Teachers can do a lot to nurture a love of reading in
their students, but we certainly can’t do it all. So while this
article is for teachers, it’s