How to help your child become a reader

Scholastic, a leading children’s book publisher, reports that a child who reads 20 minutes per day is exposed to 1.8 million words each year and will score in the 90th percentile on standardized tests. Start good reading habits early with these new picture books.

Southeastern Kentucky author Jessica Madison teaches children about the importance of farmland to the economy and to the family legacy in Papaw’s Treasure, (Chinquapin Publishing, $10). In her book that is part historical fiction and part memoir, Madison, a consumer-member of Jackson Energy Cooperative, tells the story of a farm that perseveres through generations of changing economies. Papaw reminds the children that the farm’s treasure is in the land itself and those who live on it. Madison is a shepherdess on her seven-generation family farm.

Children often ask questions about heaven—where it is or what it will be like. Through a conversation between a mama sheep and her sweet baby, Louisvillian Tiffany Campione addresses these questions in Which Way Is It to Heaven? (Covenant Books, $12.95). Scripture-infused illustrations reinforce the text. Planning a mission trip? Contact Campione at tiffanymcampione@ gmail.com to bring a book along.

Children of all ages are fascinated by trains. Skila Brown’s collection of poems about them, Clackety Track, (Candlewick Press, $16.99), teaches readers about the different types of trains and brings them to life with rhyming verse, a descriptive poem with words traveling down the train track, and a picture poem, among others. Ironically, Brown’s first job involved selling hot dogs from the window of an eastern Kentucky train caboose.