The children’s book subscription service is an amazing way for parents to make sure that their kids are reading! Not just reading for educational purposes, but also, for fun and play. Research by Dr. Stuart Brown shows that play is an important part of brain development – it increases creative thinking and ignites the imagination. Reading books does exactly the same thing, it ignites imagination, helps with play and creativity. Both are super important to effective leadership as adults. Giving children the potential to be world changers starts with allowing them to play well and providing them the tools to read consistently at a young age! Who knew?
That said, making provision for kids to have access to fun and adventurous books can fill the gaps that a formal education can leave. So, how do you raise a reader? How do you make sure that reading is a part of life for your kids for years to come? How do you get to a point where a child sees the value of books on their own? We have talked about the various methods and tools that can help you as a parent achieve this goal in our previous posts, from reading logs, to a home literacy environment, to creating the habit of reading for your child, to how to read to toddlers and why reading together is important, etc. A book subscription is yet another tool you can utilize that can take some of the guesswork out of your day! We believe how we harness this tool is different from other similar services! Let’s go over the features that optimize the value of this service!
There is a lot of noise on the internet on what the “best children’s book subscription service” or “best book box subscriptions” should have:
- Claims of a wide selection of books that would appeal to all ages (be it fiction, nonfiction, young adult books, board books, picture books).
- Availability of a variety of genres so that kids can find something they like.
- Bonus goodies along with the month’s book pick.
Let’s go over these one by one and look into the reality of how a typical book subscription service works and in contrast to that what we do.
A wide selection of books that would appeal to all ages
A book club with wide selection of books assumes that parents get to choose books that are sent to them. In almost all services we have looked at this is not the case. Not only parents don’t get to choose what book subscription service will send them, they also cannot have any impact on the contents of the box shipped. In most cases you choose the type of the books you get i.e. board books, picture books, chapter books, etc. In some cases you get to keep the books shipped in others there is a separate fee charged for the kids books you decide to keep. In terms of running monthly subscription box business sending everyone the same titles makes logistically easier to manage. Having three or four types of boxes means that each month you have to secure two or three titles per box. Our approach in this regard is different. And we love it! We are constantly working with our book vendors looking for specific titles to include in our boxes. Books that we are looking for are books by award winning authors, or award winning titles, or classics that never get old, or books that are hidden gems and/or are simply amazing books https://littlefunclub.com/book-subscription-kids/. Each Little Fun Club subscriber goes through a questionnaire to provide us with details on what their child likes and doesn’t necessarily care for, each account is manually assigned based on this questionnaire and any feedback we get based on the book boxes shipped before (here is a more detailed post on what sets us apart https://littlefunclub.com/5-things-that-set-little-fun-club-apart/). Almost no two boxes are the same, because what might be fun, educational and enchanting for one 5 year old subscriber will not necessarily be true for another. That’s even true at the level of board book boxes shipped (take a look at our post on The Benefits of Reading Books to Babies ). Each child is different in their development process, wants and needs and we strongly believe that a parent’s approach to raising a reader needs to be catered to their child.
A variety of genres, so kids can find something they like
There is an assumption here as well that kids get to choose titles like in a bookstore or library, but that’s far from reality as well. Like we mentioned earlier, the reality is that almost all book subscription services, except Little Fun Club are sending predefined titles to all their subscribers of the certain age or type. We gear our boxes not only based on the age range but also data provided to us by our subscribers.
Logistically sending the same title to all subscribers of a certain age is so much easier than packing a unique box of books catered to your kid.
You can outsource the packing process to a fulfillment company, however the product and the value that you get from the box as a subscriber is less than in our case where the staff of Little Fun Club is going through each and every account manually and assigns books that are based on not only age or a book type, but preferences, likes and dislikes of content sent before, feedback received from parents. It’s paramount for us that the reading journey of a child is constantly nourished and the child is engaged with content that they like. They need to keep reading and develop the habit of reading, develop the understanding and seeing the value of reading. Once they have established reading as a pass time, sort of like mode of entertainment, they can start looking into books and titles that are new and discover a world of reading on their own, but to get there they need curated content that is exciting based on what they like and know. This is why, depending on your child’s age, some of the series are a perfect fit, like the Owl diaries or the Magic Tree House series, etc.
“Bonus goodies”
This one is comparable to the toy isles at Barnes and Noble right next to the children’s books isles but with way less quality and value. It does have the same impact – diluting the value of the books inside the package delivered, adding more noise to the already noisy world and creating more confusion for a child.
We strongly believe that a book subscription for children should be sending books and not “bookish wearables” or any other merchandise that takes away the focus from the goal of getting kids to learn to appreciate books and reading. Our books box includes only books.
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One way or another access to books and consistent delivery of books is an important step in raising a reader. A book subscription service for kids is an amazing tool that will help you in this process. Here is a post on the benefits of a best book subscription box for kids we wrote earlier. Whether you sign up with us JOIN NOW or one of our competitors, consistent book delivery, discovery of new curated books, ownership of books and ownership of the process of reading itself is important if your goal is to raise a reader. If you start early it will be much easier (here is a post) and by the time your child enters school, you will have already served them a wealth of stories through read-alouds and home reading.
