If you’re the kind of person who has a book (or more than one) on your nightstand, a magazine by your favorite chair, a paperback in your carry-on bag—and if you’re one of those people who read while you wait—you just may be an avid reader. And that’s good: You are more likely to be informed, comforted, and stimulated by your reading than those who don’t choose to read. For children, too, the “habit” of books can begin early. It happens, as researcher Janet Hickman observed, when books are unavoidable. So, keep books everywhere – in the kitchen, in the car, in the bedroom, and even in the bathroom—to grow an avid reader in your home.

Some parents dedicate a low drawer or a plastic tubby in the kitchen to “things-to-keep-you-busy-while-I-work.”

	Parents can promote good reading habits with their kids by making books available throughout the house.

That drawer or tubby makes a great place for durable board and vinyl books—the kinds with heavy, wipe-off pages. Put books in the kitchen that are already very familiar. Then, right under your feet, your child will turn pages for himself and begin those “approximations” of reading (“And him go ‘woof.’”) that are such significant indicators of development. Put a wipe-off book with pictures of food [for example, Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert, Harcourt] right on the high chair—a very purposeful place to learn to label some concepts.

Slide some “Sing-Along Songs” (Little, Brown, 2001) into your car’s tape deck, keep the corresponding board books near the carseat, and you’ll drive yourself crazy long before your child gets cranky. Books for the car should be the easiest to hold without dropping. Cloth books can even be tied onto the car seat. The car is also a great place for the big machine and vehicle books that some toddlers love. See it on the street? Find it on the page.

Although special books for story time may be stored safely out of reach, when durable books are placed near the crib or bed, children choose them. If books are a part of their daily routines, they begin to “role play” reading when they settle down to nap or wake in the mornings – orienting their choices right side up, turning the pages, pointing things out, and giving meaning—from babble to labels to story mimicry. Perhaps more than any other place, books need to accessible in a child’s bedroom and made a part of bedroom routines—naptime, playtime, bedtime—and even changing time.

Now there are even special books for the bathroom—some for the tub that are not just “dowsible,” but may even squirt water! Other specialized bathroom books have themes of learning to use the potty, and can slide right next to the potty chair. Grown-ups read in the bathroom. Why not kids?

What kinds of books encourage young children to read everywhere? Here are a few suggestions: 1) books designed for interaction – touching a soft nose, sniffing a new smell, or lifting a flap; 2) books with a repeating question easily answered by looking at a simple illustration; 3) books that illustrate familiar songs and rhymes; and 4) books that tell a simple story children can begin to tell for themselves: “Are you my mother? No!” [Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman, Random House]. The next thing you may hear yourself saying to your avid reader? “Turn off that light and go to sleep.”