A family friend once asked us:

– Why do you need such a big library? If you need a book, download it on the Internet, it’s much more convenient! Books in general will soon become extinct as a species.

A home library is a space of culture, a way of life, a way of thinking

Indeed, many texts can be found on the Internet in just a few minutes. Sometimes you can find texts on the Internet that you simply cannot get in person. But a home library is not a collection of texts. A home library is an idea. Space of culture, way of life, way of thinking.

The home library seems to turn the family towards education and self-education. The library can be a method of teaching and educating our children, and not only in the field of literature.

Library: an accent in the interior of the house

A child lives, is raised, and studies in a house. When we arrange our home, we arrange the environment for the formation of the personality of each of our children.

A house is like a temple. The decoration of the temple, its structure calls, teaches, educates, guides, and configures a person.

A house is like a college, a school. A properly designed interior of a school classroom sets the mood for classes, gets students interested in the subject, and helps them master the educational material.

What we will teach our children through home decoration is up to us, the parents, the main educators and teachers of our children, and the owners of the house.

And if we set up a home library, we are already creating in our apartment, in our house educational space. We create an environment that will one way or another influence the upbringing of our children. If in a house, in an apartment, in a room we have found a place for books, allocated, arranged this place - it means that we have already introduced reading, literature and previous centuries of human culture into the world of our home. Just like that, easily. Children live here and see these books, pass by them every day, touch the spines with their fingers... Thousands of books stored in the memory of our home computer cannot play such a role by definition. E-books are part of personal work. The home library is part of the life of our home.

At the same time, the library is not at all the property of rich interiors or large mansions. I myself grew up in a three-room apartment, where, in addition to my parents and my six brothers and sisters, there was a home library. At first, these were shelves that were somehow put together, from floor to ceiling, along the entire corridor. And there were books in the closets in every room... Some people are renovating a large apartment and throwing out all the books like dust collectors. Others, in dilapidated five-walled buildings, manage to work with thousands of books. The question is not about square meters or the amount of money, but about lifestyle.

Library: a form of leisure time

What to do in your free time? Often – by what catches your eye. Turned on, chess on the table, an opened box of plasticine... Children “out of nothing to do” open books if they are surrounded by books. Because the title intrigued me, because the cover is beautiful (or because it doesn’t exist at all, alas, we have enough books with torn covers...) One child will take an album with views of old Moscow from the shelf - and this way he will get acquainted with history, culture, architecture. Another will open a book about insects, a third will leaf through the stories of O. Henry, a fourth will read Gogol, a fifth will discover how interesting Nechvolodov writes about the history of Russia.

However, if there is a library in the house, it is not at all necessary for children to sit reading books from morning to evening. And it’s good: when they have free time, when they “have nothing to do,” let them run, play, make crafts or draw, but a home library will help our children sometimes choose reading in such cases.

Library: shaping a worldview

A book is a teacher who can educate a person no worse than a “living” teacher

A book is an educator who can educate a person no worse than a “living” teacher. And what teacher will we entrust our children to? Anyone, as long as he knows how to write interestingly? If only it would one day be declared a “classic”?

If we have managed to instill in our children a love of reading, then, after reading one book, they look for something else to read. At first they ask their parents for help. But the older they get, the more often they choose books on their own. They independently choose books in the place where books are easiest to find, namely in the home library. They independently choose books... from those chosen by us.

With the help of our home library, we form a reading circle for our children. We can collect books that will support our chosen parenting strategy. Reading range is a certain worldview. And this is especially important if the family’s value system differs from the environmental value system. And a Christian family will inevitably be in some way, and sometimes in many ways, opposed to the world.

The reading range primarily includes fiction. Strive for self-improvement, overcome difficulties, listen to your inner world, think and reflect, compare and draw conclusions, learn from the mistakes of others, see yourself from the outside... All this is fiction. Genius awakens the reader from the sleep of petty everyday life - and at each age this awakening is different...

Fiction helps to grow creative people in any field. We open the biographies of scientists - and we see that in childhood, great mathematicians, physicists, and engineers read adventures and novels. It is also interesting that the holy royal martyrs - both parents and children - read a lot of fiction. U everyone of the children of the last Russian emperor had their own library, in total about 3500-4000 thousand books. And this is in addition to large shared libraries. Fiction in the royal family was often read out loud by everyone together - and this reading continued even during imprisonment...

What will we include in the “family reading” circle? Of course, it must be high-quality literature. But if we are trying to raise children as Christians, we will not keep great classics like Guy de Maupassant within easy reach and, with all our love for the great Leo Tolstoy, we will put “Anna Karenina” on the shelf, but we will put “Resurrection” away. Let’s treat children’s literature itself even more strictly: for example, we will remove stories and novellas by writers in which kind and sympathetic revolutionaries and their little companions help expose Orthodox “miracles” arranged by priests and monks to fool the common people, where the heroes dream of killing rich bourgeois and hated king. I am not calling for such literature to be banned, not at all. But if we strive to raise our children in faith and chastity of a holistic perception of the world and human relationships, then we will perceive the great anti-Christian literature, rather, as an interesting work for specialists, a unique monument of the era or a living illustration of life “on the other side.” I do not read such books to my children at night, nor do I offer them such literature for independent reading. If children read such books, then let it happen as late as possible. Then these books will be perceived as “foreign”.

And there is plenty of foreign literature. Literature that was created by great, talented and even brilliant authors - and is filled with fighting against God, fornication, and rudeness. Some of these authors consciously fought against Christian teaching and/or church consciousness, some were simply the product of a non-Christian, anti-Christian culture. But the more talented the writer, the more interesting he writes, the more the readers, our children, are immersed in the world created by the author, the more serious and profound the influence of the author-educator on the soul of the child.

But still, a significant part of the treasures of world literature are works written by Christian authors, and the world created by this literature is based on the values ​​of Christian life. And by creating a home library, we offer our children this world.

Every family has its own favorite books and its own reading range. In our family, the child is looking for “something to read” - and here are shelves with children’s literature, from Vladimir Dahl and Korney Chukovsky to Seton-Thompson, Kipling, Hector Malo, Sergei Aksakov, Nikolai Leskov, the same Leo Tolstoy, Garin-Mikhailovsky, Ivan Shmelev, Leonid Panteleev... If they want adventure, they will find Daniel Defoe, Stevenson, Jules Verne, Walter Scott, Mine Reed. Historical literature? Krasnov about Suvorov or the books of Svyatopolk-Mirsky. Detectives? Here is Chesterton, here is Conan Doyle. The girls will find several shelves with books by Lydia Charskaya, Frances Burnett, Louise Alcott, and for the older ones - on the shelves are Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen, Pushkin, Turgenev... An old, great-grandmother's collected works of Dickens...

If there is a large, convenient library in the house, children will not soon get out of its influence. They will start looking for books “on the side” later, when, with the help of “our” literature, we have already raised children in “our” value system. We will educate with the whole life of our family, the relationships in it, conversations with children and in front of children, the social circle of our family. If, of course, we manage to raise our children this way...

Library as an incentive for self-education

When we put books on the shelves in our home, we create the opportunity for self-education for our children. I have already talked about the Bogolyubov family, where the father-priest raised three outstanding Soviet scientists. The Bogolyubovs lived in an apartment where a large common room was also a dining room, a place for their mother’s musical studies, and their father’s office. And the books were kept here. And this scientific literature, with which their father worked, attracted children, and the kids, having barely learned to read, picked up encyclopedias and other “non-children’s” books. Such reading significantly expanded the children's horizons and prepared them for their life path.

Yes, your home library can contain not only fiction, but also books devoted to a variety of branches of science. Physics, mathematics, geography - everything that is interesting and important to parents can be open and accessible to children with the help of the library. A child walks past a cabinet with books on medicine. And one day he will stop and look, just out of curiosity. And maybe he’ll open a book and read it. He will begin to read on his own, which means his attention will be active, and he will absorb the information as fully as possible. Thus, a child’s curiosity, combined with the availability of books, will contribute to the education of our children. Or maybe it will help children understand their interests in life, help them choose, if not a profession, then a hobby.

I’ll tell you about another Soviet academician. This is a physicist, leader of Soviet mechanical engineering, one of three Russian winners of the James Watt Gold Medal - the most prestigious international award for achievements in engineering - Ivan Ivanovich Artobolevsky. His father, a priest, later a new martyr, was professionally involved in history. Ivan respected and loved his father. Therefore, the child loved to listen to his parents' conversations. The boy was interested in learning more about the history that his father loved so much. And the child went to his parents’ library, where he voraciously read the works of V.O. Klyuchevsky, his father’s teacher. I read and memorized. And I fell in love with Russian history for the rest of my life. So to parents, overheard parental conversations and the availability of books in the home library did what an entire staff of school history teachers often cannot do - they gave the child no less than a basic historical education and, most importantly, a love for native history. Such “unorganized” home education, characteristic of many intelligent families, subsequently compensated for the narrowness of special technical education, and “technician” scientists in this case turned out to be generally people of great culture.

I myself was also affected by a similar effect of the availability of parental books. When I was twelve years old, my mother was expecting another baby, and at the same time a lot of literature about pregnancy and childbirth appeared in the house. Out of pure curiosity, I started reading these books. After reading everything I could on this topic, I turned to books on pediatric developmental physiology and popular books on pediatrics. In these books, women were told to start preparing for pregnancy and childbirth “as early as possible,” and I decided that it was time for me to start this preparation. So, unexpectedly, when I was young, I began to prepare for motherhood - to “eat right” and even do special exercises for stretching and posture. It’s just that the relevant books, firstly, were generally in our house, and secondly, they were “in the public domain.”

This is how children growing up among books find something of their own, find their interests, find themselves in such reading. And what will interest our children is something we cannot know. One child will read novels, and another will read detective stories, one child will pay attention to the era of the Napoleonic wars, and the third will solve all of Perelman’s problems.

When we collect a home library, when we sort books in it, when we put some literature on the middle shelves (at the children’s eye level), we can attract the child’s attention to a specific topic. Thus, in the education of the heir to the Russian throne, Tsarevich Alexei Romanov, the study of native history was one of the most important subjects, and therefore in the boy’s classroom, next to his bedroom, there were not only maps and teaching aids, but also many books on the history of the House of Romanov and history of Russia.

And at the same time, we cannot draw conclusions: here, he is interested in anatomy, he will grow up to be a doctor. Maybe a doctor, or maybe an artist (anatomy will come in handy!), or maybe childhood hobbies will not in any way affect the choice of life path. A boy passionate about physics can become a theologian and priest. Passionate about history and biology, like the same academician I.I. Artobolevsky, will become a mechanical engineer. But, be that as it may, the reading range and cognitive interest of children will definitely play a role. If a child really becomes interested in one or another area of ​​knowledge, the inquisitiveness of the child’s mind and keen interest in the subject will allow him to independently receive a real basic education in one or another subject, which means broadening his horizons, which means in the future becoming a more versatile person than is possible with organized school and special education.

And it is not so important what particular area of ​​​​knowledge the child will be interested in. This is already a skill of self-education. Already - the joy of self-education. And in any case it will be a hobby. This means a distraction from mindlessly surfing the Internet or sitting in front of a monitor. In general, a distraction from the meaninglessness.

The Internet cannot create an “educational need”

You can say: all these books can be downloaded on the Internet, you can find information in a convenient, interactive, modern format. But the Internet cannot create an “educational need”; the Internet does not create motivation for education. He can only respond to the child’s already prepared interest.

So, in our home library we have a lot of books on architecture. And one of my sons became interested: I think he noticed the large size of these books. He began to look at pictures, read, then copy different types of orders, draw classical buildings with columns. And then, using plans from design books, I began to draw designs for various buildings on graph paper. If we had a rich electronic library on the same architecture, it is unlikely that my eight-year-old child would have “found” these albums, it is unlikely that he would have taken it into his head to study the architectural styles of different eras... And it is unlikely that he would have become interested in this topic simply “in Internet": for some reason you still have to want to enter some phrase into the search before the great Network gives out its million answers.

So that our home library helps us in raising children, in introducing them to literature, so that it is an incentive for self-education for all of us, I have drawn up a plan for myself that, in my opinion, can make the library “work”:

1. Place the library so that it is accessible to children. If the library is a locked room, it is “switched off” from the space of the house. It would be good to keep books so that they are constantly in front of the children's eyes. If it is possible to allocate a separate room for a library, then it would be good to install desks and work tables for children in this library. And tables for parents too. The child will do homework every day, do something - and will always be surrounded by books. And he will also see how parents work with books.
2. Sort books by topic. Not just for the convenience of working with them. Inscriptions on cabinets or shelves, separate cabinets by topic will attract the child’s attention and will declare one or another topic as “existing.”
3. Select books for children of different ages. The easier it is to choose a book, the more likely it is that the child will make this choice at all.
4. In general, selecting books for the library. Mercilessly destroy all base and immoral waste paper. To put away, higher, deeper, great literature that actively contradicts the family’s value system, so that working with “other people’s” books is possible only when the basic moral ideas of the grown child have already been formed.
5. While reading, when there is such a desire, make notes in books with a pencil. For this purpose, huge fields were made in medieval tomes. We pick up a book from our library and see - this is the place that interested dad, but mom didn’t agree with this point. It is incredibly interesting to read the notes made in the margins of books by my husband - these are cross-references to a variety of authors from different eras... And then it turns out that we are reading the book as if together with one of our relatives. This is another unique difference between a paper book and an electronic one. And in this case, the home library becomes an interesting way of communicating your thoughts to each other through books.

And lastly, the most important, it seems to me. Set up a library not for “educating children”, but for ourselves, simply taking into account its pedagogical effect. If something is important and interesting for us ourselves, we will not close ourselves off in our “work”, but will offer it to our children, including through books. If we want to interest children in something, in the same story, we ourselves, together with the children, will study what we would like to introduce them to. Let the children see how we work and what we read. We will read together and work together. We will discuss what we have read, we will compare books, we will offer children criteria for selecting literature for reading and discuss these criteria together. Let's be attentive to our children, we'll be close to them, we'll teach them and learn with them. In general, we will live together. One home, one values. Our home library can also help with this unity and the cultivation of these values. If we really strive for this unity and these values.

Design Tips

children's home library

"Books in your home"

It would seem that it could be simpler than organizing a children's library at home: buy books, put them on the shelf and the job is done. But not everything is as simple as we would like, because the formation of a children's reading circle depends on many factors: the age characteristics of the child, his interest in literature, as well as the goals that we pursue when creating a home children's library. It would be possible to omit the conversation about this altogether if we, adults, at the stage of preschool childhood, fully fulfilled the main task of developing interest and caring attitude towards the book. But this, unfortunately, rarely happens, because books in our house have powerful rivals: TV, video, computer.

Have you ever thought about the question: “What can a book give a child?” But children draw a lot of knowledge from books: the first ideas about time and space, about the connection of man with nature and the objective world, which helps expand the child’s horizons. Through literary works, children for the first time experience courage and perseverance, good and evil, learn such universal human values ​​as honesty, justice, friendship, sympathy, i.e. books cleanse and open the soul, foster good feelings. In addition, books are an inexhaustible source for the development of intelligence and creativity, not only for children, but also for us, adults.

In this regard, we advise you to be very careful and selective in organizing and selecting books at home. Adults should remember that a book attracts a small child primarily because of its design. Its appearance should be attractive: different forms of covers, beautiful, bright illustrations. A modern poet said well that this is a priority for a child:

We read books together, bison and boa constrictors, with dad every weekend. And dad has none! I have two hundred pictures, I have them in the wild desert, and dad has not a single one. A lion's footprint is drawn. I have elephants, giraffes - I feel sorry for Dad. Well, what kind of book is it, Every single one of the animals, - If there are no pictures in it!

Your home library should have different types of books.

First type – toy book, picture book, which is given to a child from a very early age (up to one year). This is not literature yet. Here the visual image prevails over the verbal, drawings are of primary importance. K.I. Chukovsky noted that this period is important in mastering speech, and a book that provides rich visual impressions will be a good assistant in this matter. K.D. Ushinsky wrote: “Children’s nature clearly requires clarity. Teach a child some five words unknown to him, and he will suffer for a long time and in vain over them, but associate twenty such words with pictures - and the child will learn them all on the fly ... "In addition, there is hope that a child at an early age who takes a book in hand and having received pleasure from communicating with it, will continue to reach for the book in the future and become a passionate reader.

Second type – This die-cut book Its cover is cut out along the contour of the subject discussed in the text, and its playful external design also helps to attract the child to become familiar with the content.

Third type – panorama book.It is not only brightly illustrated, but also equipped with moving figures. With the help of these figures, the action seems to come to life in it. By manipulating them, the child not only joins the rhythm of the text, but also lives what is happening along with the characters.

We also need to remember that the child’s library should have books of different types reflecting reality: not only fairy tales, but also realistic literature, not only prose, but also poetry. Until the age of 3–4, children should be surrounded by picture books type of folding beds and toy books with a predominance of illustrations and short text: “Ryaba Hen”, “Magpie-Crow”, etc. After 3 years, it is important to adhere to one of the basic rules - in the child’s field of view there should be from 3 to 5 books with bright illustrations and accessible to this age plot. These are, of course, “Toys” by A. Barto, “The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats”, “Kolobok”, “Teremok”, “Three Bears”, etc.

It would be nice to update the book repertoire after 2-3 weeks, introducing one new book at a time, with a surprise or encouragement, for example: - Today your cat brought you a very interesting book "Cat House"- Grandma and I decided to give you a new fairy tale - after all, you really love and take care of books. At 4 years old and older, it is very important to tell your child that there is a children’s library at home. And together with the child it is necessary to organize it correctly, i.e. systematize by adult type: fairy tales, books by the same author; according to the seasons; stories about animals, books by foreign authors, riddles, poems, encyclopedias, etc. It is important to separate each division with a cardboard partition with a symbol design indicating a particular section. It's a good idea to give your library a name (eg « Knizhkinhouse") and gradually accumulate it. We should not forget that books require our care from time to time. Therefore, not far from the library you can place a corner « Knizhkinahospital", where materials and tools for repairing books will be stored. We recommend doing this work together with children. This will help foster a caring attitude and love for books. We also advise you to purchase, or better yet, together with your children, make games based on the plots of literary works that will help maintain interest in the book:

different types of theaters (tabletop, “mitten”, spoon theater, shadow);

games-traveling through fairy tales with chips and dice;

lotto or dominoes "Heroes of Favorite Fairy Tales";

puzzles or cut-out pictures based on the plots of your favorite works;

guess the riddle - find the answer;

CDs with audio recordings of various children's works;

a chest with “magic” objects: a ball, a magic wand;

creative materials: paints, markers, paper, plasticine, glue;

a wonderful bag with small animal toys for writing your own stories, etc.

Let us note that every child has a book that is his favorite, and therefore he asks to re-read it many times. Don't worry - this is a natural and positive process. Satisfy his desires: a preschool child gets along with the heroes of fairy tales or stories, all of them are his close friends and advisers. But constantly try to expand the field of his book vision, orienting the baby to everything useful, artistic and morally valuable. Pay attention to the printing, design of illustrations and, of course, the content.

It is very important for a child to be familiar, along with fairy tales, with the treasury of children's literature - classics: works by L. Tolstoy, K. Chukovsky, S. Marshak, E. Charushin, N. Nosov, V. Oseeva, V. Dragunsky and many other authors. Be sure to add Mikhail Zoshchenko’s wonderful books to your library—using funny examples, they will teach your child such concepts as morality, honesty, and good manners.

We share useful tips for creating a book kingdom.

Let's start with the fact that when creating a home library for children, several principles must be taken into account:

Choose books with different topics: nature, the animal world, relationships with friends, parents, the world around you, technology, etc. If a child loves dinosaurs, this is not a reason to give up everything else;
Remember that boys and girls often like different books. We are talking about those cases when you need to talk about some characteristic qualities or situations. It’s not for nothing that girls love books about princesses, and boys love books about dragons;
consider seasonality. This is especially true for the popular discovery book format today;
try to place books within the child's reach. Especially those that are actively read in the current period;
purchase books taking into account the child’s age and development, be sure to prepare some of the books “for growth”;
Leave your child's favorite books in the home library. Children will enjoy reading them again. Even after years. Perhaps someday your grandchildren or great-grandchildren will become the proud owners of a real collection of wonderful children's books;
From childhood, teach your child to treat books with care - not to draw, not to pick up with dirty hands, to use bookmarks and not to wring the pages.

Choosing books for a children's library

The range of children's literature today is very large. It's easy to buy an expensive book and miss the plot or illustrations. To avoid such troubles (and ineffective spending), try to consider the following points when purchasing:

Flip through the book carefully. If possible, skim a few pages to understand how close the book’s style, the author’s language, etc. are to you;
choose books with illustrations in natural colors. This is very important for babies;
Glossy pages are considered the highest quality, but they are not always convenient during the reading process - glowing pages often spoil the impression;
Encyclopedias are a separate type of books. They are leafed frequently, so the pages should be durable and the pictures should be bright and large. A good encyclopedia is a real decoration for a library and an excellent gift.

Creating a rubricator

A rubricator, even a conditional one, is needed primarily to uniformly replenish the contents of the library. With it, it will be easier for you to keep track of which books there are a lot of, and which ones not so much, what exactly you need to buy for your older child.

The most common categories of books found in home libraries are:

Books for the little ones;
Russian folk tales, poems by Russian poets;
fairy tales and poems by Soviet writers;
fairy tales by foreign authors;
anthologies, tales of the peoples of the world, legends and myths;
books about children;
adventure library;
encyclopedias;
books for preschoolers;
educational literature and manuals for teaching children;
classic books for older children.

The specific content of each category depends on your preferences. You can be guided only by your impression and spend hours near the shelves in a bookstore. A more humane way is to read book reviews and read reader reviews before purchasing.

Book traditions

Start book rituals and traditions in your family. Together with a well-selected and convenient home library, they will create the right atmosphere for introducing children to reading. Here are some examples of such traditions:

Evening readings- you will be surprised, but not every family decides to read books at night. Often such events are sporadic. Bedtime stories are a completely separate type of book, the correct selection of which will give you and your child amazing moments.

Reading with the whole family. Do not confuse with the previous option, when the main reader is mom or dad (often according to a special schedule - who has more strength). Reading with your family is a real intellectual adventure, when participants pause to clarify, discuss and gather opinions about one or another action of the main character.

Creativity based on books read- these can be drawings, games, riddles. It’s very cool to hold a home theater performance (tabletop, puppet, shadow...) once a month, where the heroes of your favorite fairy tale come to life. The performance can be timed to coincide with a family holiday or as an occasion for a gathering of family and friends. Among other things, excellent training for memory and public speaking skills.

Regular selection of books to replenish the library. Make a note to yourself - buy a new book with your child once every two weeks, every month. Discuss with your child in advance what exactly he would like to read. This, by the way, is a good reason to conduct an audit of your library in order to understand what you liked and remains in the archive, and what is not so good and why exactly.

At all times, having your own home library was considered a sign of education. The volume of the library and the quality of the books that filled it were used to judge the degree of erudition of a person.

Smart people were called “well-read”, i.e. who have read many books and gained their knowledge from them. People of the older generation remember how difficult it was to get rare copies, what queues they had to stand in for them, how long they had to wait for subscription publications. The library in the cramped "Khrushchev" occupied precious meters of living space, and yet many multiplied and multiplied the volume of cabinets, racks, and shelves.

Today, attitudes towards home libraries have changed somewhat. Today, for many, the words “home library” are associated with another element of luxury that can be used to decorate your own home. The vast majority of Internet sites for the request “home library” will offer you to manufacture, equip, and install exclusive furniture for your library. Those. We will talk about cabinets and shelves. Books are, apparently, a secondary issue.

In this regard, I recall an incident from life: guests asked one owner of a substantial home book depository how he reached the top shelves, how he took books from them to read? “I get it out very simply - with a vacuum cleaner!” was the answer, completely eliminating the need for subsequent questions. In some specialized stores today you can even buy fake book spines, with which you can create the illusion of a large volume and solidity of the library.

What happened? What is the reason for the change? Why did the most reading nation on the planet, for the most part, stop reading? The main change, perhaps, occurred in the area of ​​the emergence and distribution of “non-book”, non-print media. If earlier erudite people were called well-read, today they most likely should be called “well-read.” Today, the average Russian spends up to 30 hours a week in front of the TV, 10 hours a week at the computer monitor, while at best 5 hours reading (we won’t go into details of what he reads!). Remember what you could watch on TV in Soviet times? Two programs, several films. Newspapers and magazines also worked in the ideological field. Nobody even dreamed of such miracles as the Internet! For those seeking knowledge, only books remained. And although some books were in short supply, a book could still be owned: it could be re-read, given to a friend or borrowed from him, its especially valuable parts could be retyped, etc. Back then books were of real value; and this value for some publications was due to their small circulations. Happy owners of rare books rightfully considered themselves rich people.

What can I say to this? Maybe books, as a form of transmitting thoughts, are hopelessly outdated today and should soon disappear altogether? How did such methods of transmitting information as knotted writing or cuneiform writing on wet clay once disappear? Perhaps the age of the book is coming to an end and there is no need for pointless nostalgia? Are libraries really nothing more than cabinets and shelves?

How to create a home library?

For those who still believe that books cannot be completely replaced by TV, the Internet and electronic books, we suggest you think about creating your own home library. It should be said that this business will immediately challenge the daily routine imposed on us by modernity: if you do not want to collect a fake library, but want to really be well-read, you will have to “snatch” a dozen precious hours from the TV!

What literature should I collect? Let us venture to propose such a system.

Reference, technical literature necessary for work or study. Naturally, such literature must be purchased, collected, collected. If you are engaged, for example, in programming, then literature in this direction will certainly be useful to you.

General developmental literature. Each person has his own preferences in everything. When choosing general developmental literature, you should also be guided by your interests: if you are a “techie”, it might be interesting to collect a collection of books on the history of mechanics, electronics, etc. Some people like history, some astronomy, some are interested in issues of philosophy and religion. Today there are many interesting books on construction and repair, on arranging and decorating your home; You can also devote a whole section to them. All of these trends can dictate what books you should seek out and collect.

Fiction literature. Don't forget the classics! No matter how trivial it may sound, every home library should have at least several works by one author from Russian and foreign classics.

When creating a home library, you need to be guided by several principles.

Pulp and beach reading should not be included in the library, because... it has no value and there is no need to collect it. These books are just to pass the time.

Good literature can be purchased at book sales, by advertisement. You can buy entire private libraries at a very low price. Used books often cost much less than new ones, and are just as good in binding and paper quality as new ones.

Collections of magazines can take a worthy place in the home library. In the section of general education books, it is quite possible to include selections of magazines “Around the World”, “Biography”, “Discovery”, “Science and Technology”, etc. Selections of magazines can also be purchased from collectors at sales.

When collecting a library, don't forget about your children. Buy literature that is also interesting for them. Instill in them an interest in reading adventure novels by Fenimore Cooper, Jules Verne, and Mine Reed.

Remember that owning a library is not cheap. Purchasing books, building library furniture, caring for books, transporting them when moving - all this requires money and effort. Don't set yourself the goal of building a large library. Collect a library of books that are valuable to you.

For ease of classification, use special computer programs. They will help you arrange all the books into sections and remind you of who you gave this or that book to read.

Look for like-minded book lovers. This will give you a new circle of friends and help you find the publications you need.

Read what you add to your library! Otherwise, all your efforts will be in vain. A library “for furniture” is not worth the effort and money spent on it. Better buy a new TV!

Vladimir Vorozhtsov

Wonderful lines from a poem by S. Mikhalkov. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine our world without a book, and perhaps completely impossible. After all, the book accompanies us through life since childhood.

A child, by nature, is interested, inquisitive and very impressionable. And he can always satisfy this inexhaustible curiosity with the help of books. Colorful, tempting, intriguing, opening the curtain to an unusual, wonderful world, books form a child’s understanding of the world around him. And most importantly, books lay the foundation for a child’s moral development, teach kindness, love, and talk about negative qualities such as hatred, cowardice, and betrayal. Books help you find inner harmony, teach you to fantasize, help you imagine, help shape your perception of the world and, of course, actively expand your vocabulary.

A child does not immediately become an active reader, but this does not mean that he does not know how to communicate with books. At first, this is the first acquaintance with the book, laying the foundation of a strong friendship. Simply put, turning through colorful pages, getting to know the pictures. True friendship cannot begin without the help of an adult. The adult becomes an intermediary between the child and the writer. A child's true love for a book is, first of all, the love for the book of his parents and other adult family members. By reading a book to a child, being able to empathize with the characters, immersing himself in the events of the book as if they were real, and being able to convey these deep feelings to the child, an adult instills in the child a love of literature.

As a rule, there are no children who do not like to read; there are adults who do not read to them and do not buy books, without even thinking about how important and necessary it is to have a home children's library. I immediately remember a wonderful poem by V. Berestov about how important reading is for a child.

Currently, putting together a truly high-quality home library for a child has become a huge problem. The wide variety of writers, publishing houses, and books has led to the fact that adults sometimes get lost among this diversity. Let's try to figure out which books should definitely be on children's shelves, which books children will be happy to bring you to read, and which ones will become your faithful assistants in raising a worthy person.

Fairy tales and stories from writers from different countries

Fairy tales are a special category of children's books. You can talk about them for a very, very long time. The easiest way to say this is: “A fairy tale should enter every home!” A fairy tale is the very first step of the ladder leading a child into a huge, amazing, unknown world. A world of fantasy and imagination, a deep, interesting and exciting world. Through a fairy tale, the child masters the complex and deep relationships between people, shares the feelings of the heroes, imagines what is not in reality, and learns the wisdom of the peoples of the world. Children's fairy tales are an excellent cure for greed, rudeness, aggression and anger.

Here are just a few well-known, beloved and time-tested collections of fairy tales, written by different authors and in different eras: fairy tales by C. Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, G.H. Andersen, A.S. Pushkin, V. Gauf, S. Topelius, P. Bazhov, K. Paustovsky, G. Tsyferov, S. Kozlov, V. Suteev with illustrations by E. Charushin, N. Kochergin, Y. Vasnetsov, V. Chizhikov and other artists, as well as wonderful and varied collections of Russian folk tales and tales of the peoples of the world.

Books about animals

Kind, touching books about our little brothers can evoke the strongest emotions in children: tenderness, admiration and even tears. Such books should be in every home where there is a child. Communication with animals, even through a book, is a wonderful way to instill in a child all the kindest feelings. These are wonderful guides to kindness, love, tenderness and affection.

Stories about animals by E. Charushin ("Tyupa and Tomka", "In our yard", "Big and Small", etc.), L. Tolstoy ("Stories about Animals"), A. Chekhov ("Kashtanka" and other stories), A Kuprin ("Barbos and Zhulka", "White Poodle", "Elephant", "Golden Rooster", etc.), B. Zhitkova ("The Brave Duckling", "About an Elephant", "About a Monkey" ", etc.), M. Prishvina ("Pantry of the Sun", "Stories about Animals"), V. Bianchi ("The Fox and the Mouse", "How an Ant Hurried Home") and others.

Children's poems

Perhaps the easiest and most understandable part of children's literature. With the help of poetry, the child easily remembers new words and expressions, repeating them many, many times, with a special clear rhythm and melody. Poems are not only easy to understand and easy to remember, they are incredibly instructive. From poetry, a child learns in an accessible form about what is good and what is bad, and gets acquainted with nature and the world around him. Listening to poems by famous children's authors (Barto, Mikhalkov, Chukovsky, Marshak, Usachev, Berestov) about a stupid mouse, about Uncle Styopa, about Barmaley, about a fly and a brave mosquito, about Moidodyr and Aibolit, about other heroes of children's poems, the child learns a lot of useful information. and interesting information. It is with poetry that we begin to introduce a child to literature. Poems are useful not only for the mental, but also for the emotional development of the child. They gradually prepare him to read and understand increasingly complex literature.

Popular science books, encyclopedias

Many children's questions simply drive parents crazy. Endless: "Why? When? Why? What is it?" - put parents at a dead end. Children's encyclopedias and popular science books are good assistants for parents that will give answers to the most complex and tricky questions. Such books should be large, colorful, bright and durable. They should attract the child’s attention so that it is simply pleasant to leaf through them, ask questions and receive correct, detailed answers to them.

Talking and interactive books

Recently, talking books have gained enormous popularity: interactive alphabet books and encyclopedias, “smart fairy tales” and music books, unique computer books with LCD displays. All these books, in addition to text, contain a sound module. This module helps you quickly memorize animal voices, letters, numbers and colors. Such a book will tell the child a fairy tale or even sing a song. Talking books also develop fine motor skills; the child presses buttons again and again to hear his favorite sounds.

Book in the modern world

The modern world has made its own adjustments to the development of the book industry, both good and not so good. One of the huge advantages of the modern world that we can take advantage of is the World Wide Web. She is the one who helps us choose and buy books without leaving home. Modern online stores allow us not only to buy a book based on the cover design, but also to flip through it directly on the Internet, get acquainted with the content, pictures, and, sometimes, the text itself.

But this is just a drop in the bucket. In the modern world, an adult, and after him a child, is increasingly immersed not in the pages of books, but in a mesmerizing computer screen. Today, the child has many more hobbies, so reading books is no longer the first, or even the second. Or maybe it’s not on the daily to-do list at all. With the advent of various gadgets, new ways of reading books and gaining knowledge have appeared. To learn the alphabet and learn to read, now one program on a computer is enough. To read a book, you can easily download it from the Internet... Undoubtedly, all this is a wonderful addition to printed publications, but it would be a very shame to replace the book with them. The printed book is our heritage, our history, it has passed and survived many, many centuries, so by completely destroying printed publications, we will destroy our history.

How to choose a book for your home library

The best copy for a children's home collection, obviously, will be a book that has been passed down by inheritance, an old book. Such books, as a rule, contain original plots of children's works and high-quality hand-drawn pictures. It is a great pleasure to have such books and to be able to read them. Carefully glued and hemmed, they teach the child to be neat and instill a special, gentle and caring attitude towards books. Old children's books are a link to the past, a story that needs to be passed down from generation to generation.

If you are not lucky enough to become the owner of an already collected collection, you will have to try a little. Collecting a children's library is an interesting and exciting activity. Get creative with this process. The main thing is to remember a few simple rules that will help you assemble a truly valuable book collection.

1. Be sure to flip through a children's book before purchasing it.
2. Look carefully at the illustrations. Pictures must be drawn in real colors. This is very important, especially when it comes to books for children who are just getting acquainted with colors.
3. Pay attention to the quality of the book; the cover should be hard and the pages thick. Glossy pages are considered the highest quality.
4. For a child up to at least two years old, it is necessary to select books with thick cardboard pages that are difficult to tear.
5. The plot of the book must be original. Distorted versions of fairy tales and stories can not only be uninteresting to a child, but also harm his worldview.
6. Encyclopedias should have bright, large pictures and durable pages so that they are easy to flip through. It’s good if such books become collectible, because they are relevant at all times and at any age.

How to properly organize your home library

Hermann Hesse

A home library is not just a collection of books, it is a portrait of the owner. Each personal library is unique and individual, and it can tell a lot about its owner. It’s not for nothing that journalist Louis Blanc wrote: “Tell me what you read and I’ll tell you who you are.”

A home library is also a special atmosphere in which a love of books, reading, and neatness is fostered; this is an important part of life, which you need to get acquainted with from early childhood.

1. Teach your child to arrange books in a certain order. For example, alphabetically or by general topic. Every time you read a book, put it back in its place together. Try to make this rule an unshakable ritual. Books should not be in disarray, much less scattered.
2. Teach your child how to handle books correctly: carefully turn the pages, put covers on books, put bookmarks. If the book is torn, then glue it together with your child. Never fold the corners of pages; keep bookmarks in the house. Explain that you cannot make any notes in the book with a pen, or better yet, not make them at all.
3. Thin children's books can be stored in large folders by topic. You can design these folders together with your child, come up with covers, beautifully color them and sign them.
4. Make a list of all the books and designate their place on the shelves. If someone borrows a book from you, mark it on the general list. This is important so that books do not get lost.

By following these simple rules, you will quickly see results. Your child will learn to respect and love books and treat them with special honor. The child will definitely pass on these rules to his children.

Introducing a child to literature is a long, painstaking work. But this work is incredibly useful, enjoyable, and it definitely bears fruit. Collecting a truly valuable children's library is not at all difficult, the main thing is to approach this matter with all your soul, heart and great love for your children.