Many school teachers point out that the more children enjoy reading, the more skilled they become in reading. And literature, they say, is most useful for developing childrens reading skills. It should be welcomed that more and more teachers use literature for utilizing skills in joyful, purposeful reading. Care must be taken, however, to make certain that all literature falls within the reading levels of the children for whom it is provided. Although children will read different things at different levels, the frustrating experience of trying to read literature that is too hard may discourage a child from making attempts to read at all. Any literature that interests children, but that is too difficult for them to read, should be read or told to them by the teacher.
The children's interest contributes a great deal to fluency and speed in reading. Even word-by-word readers forget to loiter over each symbol when they become absorbed in a story. Instead, such readers race over the pages to find what will happen next, and in their eagerness they take in whole meaningful groups of words. Folktales are particularly valuable for reluctant readers. Repetition of phrases, simplicity of characterization and swiftness of plot make for easy reading. Also, the simple conversation in folktales helps to bridge the gap between oral reading and silent reading, a gap that the inexperienced reader often finds difficult to bridge.
Thus, literature serves children in many valuable ways. Many people today, realizing the essential worth of literature in this mechanized and troubled era of history, are combining their efforts to make the stimulating influences of literature more widely available. Educators are urging more abundant supplies of literature for classrooms and more skilful use of literature by teachers. Publishers, trained librarians, literary people, and childhood specialists are cooperating wholeheartedly in advancing and spreading literary values. All these efforts are evidence of a growing realization of the unlimited value of literature.