It’s no secret that I love books. And thankfully, so do my children. Maybe I passed on some bibliophile gene to them or perhaps their love of reading came from watching me with my nose often in books. Or maybe both. But one thing is for sure–I believe creating a book-friendly environment and routine for kids is beneficial.

Here are some suggestions to help your kids love reading.

Read to your children. This is an obvious one. My husband and I have read to our daughters since they were babies. They are now seven and eight and although they can and do read by themselves, we still read aloud to them. Every night at bedtime we cuddle together with either a picture book or chapter book.

Keep books all around the house. We keep books in every room (except the bathrooms). On shelves, in baskets, stacked on tables. You want them to always be an option when a kid is bored and looking for something to do.

Incentives don’t hurt. After my daughters began reading chapter books on their own, I started keeping track of their progress on a book log. Each log has room to record 16 books, and once they fill out the whole page, I give them a surprise. Could be a new book or small toy, a trip to the park or ice cream shop, or anything else I think of. The key here, though, is that I don’t pressure the girls to finish a log. One daughter reads that much in a month, and one might only finish 1-2 logs a year. I let them know that is okay; I’m proud of them no matter what. (And in the spirit of “fairness”–my oldest’s favorite word–the more logs completed, the smaller the surprise generally.)

Let them see you reading. And preferably not on your phone. They can’t see through the back of the phone to tell the difference between the Kindle app and social media.

Take a break and ask them to read to you. That email or load of laundry can wait ten minutes, I promise. Let your child pick out any book they want and curl up together on the couch. Help them with the words they don’t know, and applaud them for the words they do.

Experiment with a variety of books. Every kid is different, so if they don’t like one book, try something else. One of the worst things to do is push them to read something they hate. And there are so many options out there: picture books, easy readers, chapter books, graphic novels, non-fiction, biographies, poetry. Take your child to the library and wander the aisles until something captures their eye. We frequent the library once or twice a week and have anywhere from 10-30 books checked out at a time. Some my girls picked out to read on their own, some to use in our homeschool, and some to read at bedtime.

Listen to audiobooks in the car. I’ve gotten some books on CD (yes, I’m old-school) from the library and I also use the Libby app on my phone to download audiobooks from the library. These are great for road trips or to just help keep kids entertained when out running errands around town.

Now that I’ve given you some ideas for how, here are some suggestions for what to read. First, some of our favorite chapter books:

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren (and its two sequels)

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

The Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne

Toliver’s Secret by Esther Wood Brady

Ways to Make Sunshine by Renee Watson (and Ways to Grow Love)

The Secret of the Hidden Scrolls series by M.J. Thomas

Nim’s Island by Wendy Orr

Rescue at Lake Wild by Terry Lynn Johnson

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

Bear Grylls Adventures series by Bear Grylls

The Popper Penguin Rescue by Eliot Schrefer

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (currently reading but my kids have loved it from the first chapter)

And as for picture books–as my kids get older, I especially love those that tell about a real person or event. They are educational yet so much more entertaining to kids than a textbook. Some great ones:

The Boy Who Grew a Forest: The True Story of Jadav Payeng by Sophia Gholz

Molly, by Golly! The Legend of Molly Williams, America’s First Female Firefighter by Dianne Ochiltree

A Song for Cambodia by Michelle Lord

The Library Bus by Bahram Rahman

Branches of Hope: The 9/11 Survivor Tree by Ann Magee

Otis and Will Discover the Deep: The Record-Setting Dive of the Bathysphere by Barb Rosenstock

The Wildest Race Ever: The Story of the 1904 Olympic Marathon by Meghan McCarthy

Listening to the Stars: Jocelyn Bell Burnell Discovers Pulsars by Jodie Parachini

My last suggestion is where to get books. Obviously, I’m a fan of the library. But I also love filling up our own bookshelves, and to do that, I’ve been finding great deals on bookoutlet.com and thriftbooks.com.

So there you have it. I’d love to hear any tips or book recommendations you have to share in the comments!