By Casey Neill
Reading is a good habit best formed early, says author Phil Kettle.
“And that habit isn’t formed at school. It’s not a teacher’s responsibility,” he said.
“Good reading habits begin at home with parents, where they create an environment where reading is part of their everyday life, like brushing their teeth.”
Mr Kettle said parents often bought books they’d like their child to read.
“What your parents like isn’t necessarily what you like,” he said.
“You need to find out what they are interested in, then get them reading material that is suitable for their interest.”
He said creating the habit was simple from there: start off reading for one minute, then build on it.
“In two weeks you’ve created the reading habit,” he said.
“Once that’s created, your parents will be knocking on your door at 10.30pm and you’ll be saying ‘one more chapter’.”
Mr Kettle said his father instilled in him that reading was the foundation of good education, that it turned on your imagination switch and allowed you to go into another world.
“I was very fortunate, in the area I grew up in television never came until I was 12 or 13,” he said.
“We stayed outside until it was dark, had dinner and then all you had to do was read.”
About 25 years ago he wrote a book series with a character named Toocool to encourage young boys to read, and has since written two others – The Xtreme World of Billy Kool, and Clancy of the Outback.
Mr Kettle travels to schools around the country, encouraging a love of reading and writing.
“One of my great joys in life is going into schools and speaking with students,” he said.
“As I always say to students, they write to please one person, and that one person is themselves.
“I write a story imagining that I was that 8, 9, 10, 11-year-old child. I write to what I would have liked.
“I liked reading stories written in the first person. It helps you as the reader to be that person.
“I encourage young people to write in the first person. It helps give them ownership of the story.”
Despite the technology infiltrating today’s world, Mr Kettle doesn’t believe kids today are all that different from his childhood self.
“We’re entertained in a different way,” he said.
“Kids have computers and mobile phones that we didn’t.
“But the simple fact is that students still like to be entertained
“They still use their imagination. They still dream of the things they’d like to do.
“With all children, and all people, people like to feel good – feel good about themselves, about what they do, what they achieve.”
