We are approaching the most wonderful time of the year, a holiday season! This is a time to gift books to our loved ones. As mentioned in this blog, books are so useful for helping children learn and develop. However, books also bring joy, happiness, and pleasure to children! It is important to give children books they enjoy reading and books with which they can identify. It is important to get children books they will read for fun and pleasure!!! Books should be for learning, developing and having fun!

Wilhelm, Smith, and Fransen (2013) write that reading for fun generates 5 different types of pleasure that lead to good outcomes for children and adults. The 5 types of pleasure are as follows;

• Immersive Pleasure,
• Intellectual Pleasure,
• Social Pleasure,
• Work Pleasure, and
• Inner Work Pleasure.

All five of these pleasures lead to good outcomes. Immersive pleasure is the most important and it comes when you can relate to characters, get lost in the book and lose track of time, visualize meanings, and participate in making meaning. Another important one is social pleasure. This includes relating characters to exploring and labeling one’s own identity. This helps with seeing the world from another perspective or viewpoint, and appreciating others, and having reciprocal relationships with others.

The other three pleasures (Intellectual, Work, and Inner Work) all have benefits, too. Intellectual pleasure helps us to discover meaning, learn deeply, and persist in the face of obstacles. Work pleasure helps us to function in life and learn new strategies and insights. Inner work pleasure helps us to consider who we are and who we want to be. We can also engage in and rehearse social situations.

So, you can see that reading for pleasure is important and quite beneficial. So, buy children’s books they want to read and get pleasure from reading! Buy children’s books they love!! This will help them to develop and learn better. It will benefit them more than you know. Have a wonderful holiday and see you in the new year!!!

*** The information for this blog post comes from the book Reading Unbound by Wilhelm, Smith, and Fransen that was published in 2013.