What should I buy my reluctant reader for Christmas?

Reluctant readers can pick up the wrong message about reading: that it's all about reading the words on the page accurately. It's about so much more: engaging with themes and characters; guessing what might happen next; relishing the sound of the words in one's mouth and having a holiday from one's own world, to name but a few. If your child is a reluctant reader, don't be afraid to buy him or her some talking books. I remember one reluctant reader, in our boarding house, whom I got into talking books. She was one of four sisters and all her sisters had read 'Rebecca,' but she had never been able to finish it. It was the first talking book she read and it captured her imagination. A year later she was curling up in bed with paperback books. She had found the joy of reading through that one talking book.