The Read-Aloud Family: Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections with Your Kids

by Sarah Mackenzie

A book allowance can help your children grow their own collection. Each month, my own kids are given a small bit of money to spend on books. They look forward to our trips to local bookshops and keep lists of titles they’d like to acquire. Allison loves the quality of Bloomsbury paperbacks, so when she finds another book in E. D. Baker’s Wide-Awake Princess series, she uses her book allowance to buy it (even if she’s read it before). Audrey has used her allowance to build a gorgeous Lucy Maud Montgomery collection. She’s always on the lookout for beautifully covered classics to add to her pretty shelves. Two of my kids literally count down the days every time Brandon Mull gets ready to release another fantasy novel. They don’t even try to borrow those books from the library—they know they’re going to want to have them on our home shelves, to read and reread over and over again. These books, purchased with their own money and lining their own bookshelves, become a part of their treasured collections. When they move out as adults, they will take formidable libraries with them—libraries that will help them remember who they are and where they came from, long after they leave home. We send a clear message to our kids when we spend a portion of our family budget on books and when we give books a priority place in our home. We say that they matter, that they are a part of who we are, and that they are a part of our family culture.