This blog is a labour of love.
Since 2008—well over a decade—we’ve brought you the best books, games and activities that help get kids reading.
My son started reading at four years old and other parents kept asking me what my “secret” was. I was curious, too, in part because I’m a journalist but also because I didn’t think we were doing anything special. Or were we? I wanted to find out.
So I did a lot of research about literacy and early reading. I launched GKR to bring parents the “secret that’s not a secret.” That it’s about introducing your child to great books, games and activities that foster a love of reading. (For more on this, read “The Most Important Things” in the sidebar on the home page.)
Image: Pixabay
Anyway, things were going great. Parents told me they loved our literacy suggestions and were putting lots of them in place. Their kids were reading—and enjoying it.
And then one day about two years ago… the website just wasn’t there any more. It was a technical, hosting issue. It was complicated (to me) and it was going to take money and lots and lots of time on the phone to fix it.
“I’ll get to it when I have time,” I thought. I had books of my own to launch, and my other websites.
But every week or so I would read a really great kids’ book or hear about a new literacy idea that I wanted to share. I wanted to get Getting Kids Reading back up and running.
It was a long process and I want to thank two incredible tech wizards: The brilliant Valerie Strain, who not only reconfigured the site to make it work, but redesigned it to make it gorgeous. Her care, kindness and technical (and literary!) expertise were generously offered and they really are responsible for the site you see here today.
And thank you to Susan Docker, who tackled the hosting issues for this site as well as my other sites, TeachingKidsNews.com and JoyceGrantAuthor.com.
I am blessed to know these two incredible, kind and talented geniuses as well as others who help me in my work. Thank you, Pajama Press, for supplying many of the books we have reviewed over the years and to many other Canadian publishers as well. And the supportive and talented kidlit community in Canada, who produce world-class books that get kids reading and keep them reading.
To help cover the costs of maintaining this site I did decide, after 14 years, to join the Amazon Affiliates program, so if you use one of my Amazon links to purchase a book I get a small commission from Amazon (at not cost to you).
Having said that, I will always encourage you to buy from your local independent bookseller whenever you can. You’ll get great advice and reading suggestions along with your purchase, and you’ll support your local community as well. Indies are amazing and I appreciate them so much.
Thank you to everyone who has told me that Getting Kids Reading has helped them foster a love of reading in their children. We’re very happy to be back.
Now… go read a book to your kid!
