{"id":7223,"date":"2019-12-06T11:00:35","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T10:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smama.blog\/decak-i-knjige\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T13:44:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T11:44:51","slug":"fostering-love-of-reading-in-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smama.blog\/en\/fostering-love-of-reading-in-children\/","title":{"rendered":"The Boy and the Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past few days, from the gallery of the small university library where I spend not just days but years of my life, I’ve been watching what many would call an unusual sight.<\/p>\n

It’s a boy who is far too young \u2014 to put it gently \u2014 to be a student himself. I’ve never been good at guessing people’s ages at a glance, but I’d say he’s no older than ten.<\/p>\n

His father is a professor at the university, and we run into them often \u2014 not only on campus, but at various cultural events, to which he brings his children along, just as we do (he has three). I don’t know the man personally, and I have no idea what he teaches. But he’s one of those people you encounter so frequently that you simply remember them.<\/p>\n

For the past several days in a row, this boy has been exploring the rows of books in the library. He places a few chosen volumes on “his” table in the reading room and then just sits there \u2014 reading or leafing through them. For hours at a time. Then his father comes to collect him and together they head to the cafeteria for a “coffee” (I know because I’ve bumped into them there too, quite by chance).<\/p>\n

This image delights me on several levels, which is exactly why I wanted to write it down.<\/p>\n

It’s wonderful that the boy isn’t glued to his phone or a screen, but finds his entertainment \u2014 you won’t believe it \u2014 in a library of all places. I don’t think modern media are bad in themselves, but that’s a topic for another time.<\/p>\n

Looking from a distance, I can’t possibly know whether he loves video games or how much screen time he gets. But I see the enthusiasm with which he explores the books when he’s here.<\/p>\n

I see myself in him, in some way, at his age. And I see Sofka in a few years’ time.<\/p>\n

\"DSC05544\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Children Are Our Future \u2013 But We Shape It<\/h2>\n

I would very much love to bring my daughter here one day too \u2014 to let her spend time at the university, and have it not feel like a chore to her.<\/p>\n

\n

With childhood memories like that, I believe it’s hard to grow up to be a bad<\/em> person, don’t you think?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Maybe none of this makes much sense to you \u2014 but for me it’s deeply emotional and moving.<\/p>\n

I just think back to how much I loved going to the public library with Mum and Dad as a child, where there were far fewer books, where you couldn’t simply wander between endless rows of shelves and pick out whatever caught your eye, and where there certainly wasn’t a place to sit down and start reading right then and there.<\/p>\n

And yet it was wonderful to me \u2014 even with all those “limitations.”<\/p>\n

And maybe that’s exactly why it still feels wonderful today to spend hours among books \u2014 here in the reading room, at home \u2014 and to explore the shelves of the children’s library with Sofka at least once a week.<\/p>\n

\n

Children are our future \u2014 but we shape it in large part.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And while I write these lines, the boy is leaving with his father \u2014 probably heading home, to a warm dinner, to tell his mum and his siblings about the kind of day he had. And he’ll be back tomorrow. I’m sure of it.<\/p>\n

S-Mama<\/em><\/p>\n

P.S. This text was written last summer, while I was still working on my Master’s thesis. But it got lost among all the other unpublished and published pieces \u2014 or maybe it didn’t. Maybe it was simply waiting for me to find it and publish it today of all days. And so I sit here thinking, really thinking\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the past few days, from the gallery of the […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1056],"tags":[3648,3457,3458,3459,3649,3647,3650,3652,3651,3461],"class_list":["post-7223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mother","tag-children-and-books","tag-citanje-sa-decom","tag-deca-i-citanje","tag-kultura-citanja","tag-library","tag-love-of-reading","tag-parenting-by-example","tag-reading-culture","tag-reading-with-children","tag-roditeljski-primer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Boy and the Books - S-Mama Mima<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A love of reading doesn't develop in children on its own. 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