The very hungry caterpillar turned into a butterfly: Children's and parents' enjoyment of different book genres

Abstract

This study aimed to examine which genres parents are reading to children and for themselves. Furthermore, it aimed to examine mothers' and fathers' shared reading strategies for different book genres in relation to children's language and literacy development. Parents shared a narrative and an expository book with their preschool-aged children. Parents then completed measures of book enjoyment, book exposure and book genre preference. Children completed a battery of language and literacy measures tapping into expressive and receptive language, letter naming fluency, phonological awareness and narrative skills. Parents reported that they most frequently shared narrative picture books at home; however, they reported that their children enjoyed the expository book more than the narrative book in this study. Parents' book-reading strategies were related to children's language and literacy, with higher level strategies positively related and lower level strategies negatively related to children's language and literacy. This pattern was the same for the narrative and expository book. These results suggest that the most important task is to find books that motivate both parents and children to engage in and enjoy reading interactions.

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