When Your Child Isn’t Interested in Books: Tips to Spark a Love for Reading

Struggling to raise a reader? Here’s how small shifts in mindset and daily routine can plant the seeds for a lifelong love of stories.

Source: Josh Applegate on Unsplash

The moments we spend reading with our children are moments for connection, imagination, and identity formation. However, what if your child just isn’t interested?

Start where they are, not where you wish they were

Sometimes, a child’s disinterest in books doesn’t stem from a dislike of stories. They just haven’t yet found their entry point into reading. Some children are drawn to visual formats like comics or graphic novels. Others prefer listening to audiobooks while doing something with their hands, like drawing or building. All of these forms count as literacy!

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children build early literacy not just through books, but through talking, singing, and playing. Look to what your child enjoys doing, and connect that with a related book.

Try this: Have a child who loves to build? Get some books about architecture or machines. Or is your child fascinated by animals? Pick out books with cool facts about animals!

Modeling good habits also matter: when children see you geniuinely enjoy reading, they’re more likely to explore it themselves.

Try this: Let your child catch you enjoying a book without turning it into a lesson.

Make reading social

Rather than pressuring your child to enjoy books in a specific way, try to create a space where reading feels inviting and personal.

Reading doesn’t have to mean sitting still and turning pages. It also doesn’t have to be quiet or done alone. It can be interactive, performative, or even auditory.

Try this: Create shared rituals around stories - Sunday morning storytime, bedtime chapters, or even outdoor “book picnics.”

If your child resists reading with you, consider side-by-side silent reading. Set a few books out, pick up your own, and simply sit nearby. Sometimes, curiosity blooms when there’s no pressure.

Sometimes, the journey begins with a comic book about farting llamas.

It’s easy to worry if your child isn’t enthusiastic about books right away. However, reading requires time, flexibility, and exposure. The brain develops reading circuits through repeated positive experiences, thanks to a process called experience-dependent plasticity .

Every time your child has an enjoyable or meaningful interaction with a story, those reading-related pathways strengthen. It doesn’t have to be a “perfect” book. It just has to matter to them. This is how stories activate empathy, memory, and language, all at a go.

It doesn’t have to be a “perfect” book. It just has to matter to them.

The goal isn’t to fix your child’s attitude toward books, but to design an environment where stories are a natural, welcome part of life. Get curious. Offer variety. Share books together or just share space while reading. You got this!

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