Today I share two powerful videos captured by the Ted Talks community where the younger generation, specifically a 9-year-old Luke and a teenager, Alexia Safiah, talk about the power of reading. Having experienced the benefits of reading first-hand, these kids don’t shy away from sharing their bookish love and recommendations.
Who says motivators have to be old and wise? They can come in small packets and deliver an equally impressive punch. Check them out!
The power of reading for young kids by a young kid
Here's the perspective of a 9-year-old on why reading is vital in today's society. Luke is passionate about reading and believes the reduction in reading habit causes many social ills.
His arguments:
Great readers make great writers, and great writers make great communicators, and great communicators make great persuaders, and they, in turn, make good societies.
He thinks social media is crazy because studies suggest that some kids spend as long as six and a half hours a day on it. A passive activity that doesn’t engage the brain as reading does.
Last year Luke read
He is an unhappy kid when not reading.
He likes to read
- In bed
- On the move, while walking
- In the toilet
- In queues
- In vehicles
- At home in various corners hiding, so no one takes him away from reading
Reading is love in action, says Luke, with endless benefits for young kids like:
- Luke doesn’t have to study for school spelling tests.
- His vocabulary impresses grown-ups
- He gets popular by having conversations with adults, as they start talking about him to other grown-ups after a conversation with him.
Luke sincerely appeals to the young generation to hold on to reading as it’s the key to their kingdom and recommends books recommended by other kids in his generation.
Go For It!
Power of Reading from a Reluctant Teenager
What can reading do for us? It can do things that you wouldn’t even imagine, changing your life for good, says reluctant (reluctant about reading) Teenager Alexia Safieh.
“A Book is a gift you can open again and again.” – Garrison Keillor.
Pew Research Center’s survey of people who read a book in the last year suggests people read for different reasons
- To learn
- To escape reality
- For the feel and smell of books
She shares her experience of becoming a voracious reader from a non-reader.
- A school assignment – read a book over school break and present it– crazy, right?
- Only two options available
- Read, present, get good grades.
- Don’t read, don’t present, bad grades.
- Any Guesses on her choice?
- She chose - The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
- It is a battle of choices between reading and doing something else, argues Alexia.
But she is glad she pushed herself to develop this habit. She experienced a feeling not known before – to achieve something that she thought was impossible.
She outlines her steps to create the habit of reading:
- Pick a book – something related, interesting. Please don’t make it random.
- Make time – dedicate a specific time every day.
- Set Goals – set daily page goals – be persistent.
- Pick a Book Series – she strongly recommends this to build a habit. She recommends:
With these strategies, Alexia became an avid reader finishing 30 to 40 books at the end of the year.
She credits her passion for stories to books – reading stories and creating stories. Books made her discover she could write and create.
The most significant benefit to her generation – they live in a generation where they a choice of lakhs of books from several different sources and can read thousands of books in a lifetime – fiction/ non-fiction.
There is something for everyone she says and recommends everyone at least try. Because she says the discovery of books can amaze you.
She ends with a very famous quote by Dr. Seuss,
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
Other Recommended Book Series
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