Meeting Jeff Kinney, author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid!

shoaglund's picture
Submitted by on Mon, 04/16/2012 - 10:57am

A few weeks ago, my daughter and I were given the opportunity to meet Jeff Kinney, author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series.  He was in town to visit some family and was kind enough to visit a small group of kids involved in a local CrossFit Kids exercise program.

My daughter, Hannah is 10 and has been a huge fan of the series since it was created, an interest shared by many, many other young readers out there.

When she found out Mr. Kinney was coming, she got super excited and gathered up all of her Wimpy Kid books and prepared them for his signature. Not wanting to get her hopes up, I told her to keep in mind that he may not be able to sign all of them, but it was worth a shot.

Well, he was as nice as you could imagine. He did indeed sign each and every book she brought in, and went one step further, and drew a picture for each and every kid!

With all the new media out there competing for our families' attention, it's great to see my daughter, along with many other kids get all excited and nervous about authors, as if they were rock stars! 

Another reason I love witnessing this sort of excitement from my daughter is because there is quite a bit of research available about how important it is for our kids to read regularly. A recent study released at the American Educational Research Association convention shows that a "student who can't read on grade level by 3rd grade is four times less likely to graduate by age 19 than a child who does read proficiently by that time." 

Reading also helps develops vital language skills. And our kids need to be able to read to learn other subjects like math, science, social studies and even the arts. Without a strong foundation in reading, they may struggle to keep up. 

Review these 10 Reasons Why Reading Is Important (for kids AND adults) and make it a point to encourage your kids to read regularly. 

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