Bonnie Schwartz Houck

Bonnie Schwartz Houck was born in Illinois and moved to Minnesota in the early nineties. As a child, Bonnie and her siblings loved to play school. Unfortunately, Bonnie was always the student. In retaliation, she became a teacher. An avid reader, Bonnie became interested in reading development and pursued a master’s degree in reading instruction. During her studies, Bonnie taught preschool and kindergarten to learn “first hand” how the reading process develops and grows.

After moving to Minnesota, she continued her studies. In addition to working as a school media specialist and reading specialist, Bonnie was also Mother Goose for MELSA, an alliance of metropolitan library systems. It seemed that children had lost the love of nursery rhymes and finger plays, so crucial to reading development. Bonnie sought a way to help parents and children experience the joy that Mother Goose can bring.

Bonnie felt the responsibility of raising a child to be a good reader. With the help of her daughter, Jessica, Bonnie read research about reading development and practiced them on Jess! Many of these experiences are documented in her book, Raising a Reader. The purpose of the book is to help parents guide their child to be a book lover and capable reader.

Bonnie and her husband, Mike (also a teacher), live in Chaska, Minnesota. Her daughter Jessica attends Winona State University and is planning to be a language arts teacher. Bonnie teaches university language arts and reading courses and is the reading specialist for the Minnesota Department of Education.

Raising a Reader: Simple and Fun Activities for Parents to Foster Reading Success
written by Bonnie D. Schwartz (Houck)
Rowman & Littlefield, 2003
ISBN 978-1-57886-051-7

With today's multitude of theories on reading, it can be very confusing for parents to know how to get their children to read. In Raising a Reader: Simple and Fun Activities for Parents to Foster Reading Success, Bonnie D. Schwartz lays out simple, research- and practice-proven approaches that parents can use to promote literacy and encourage children to explore the great adventures found in books.

The first steps in fostering literacy and good reading skills is to learn how language is acquired and how this affects the development of reading.

This book exposes parents to these processes and helps build a knowledge base of games, activities, and strategies they can easily use at home to develop in their children a lifelong love of reading.